ROME, December 3. /TASS/. Ukraine has informed its Western allies that it will need at least $120 billion to continue military operations in 2025, which is much more than the 40 billion euros agreed during the Washington NATO summit, a military source in the alliance told the Italian ANSA news agency.

According to the source, this matter may be addressed during the next meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday in Brussels and will be attended by the Ukrainian foreign minister. Additionally, it is not yet clear whether Kiev considers the $50 billion in revenue from frozen Russian assets, which the Group of Seven (G7) agreed to allocate to Ukraine, to be part of the sum.

The source also noted that Ukraine will not receive any official invitation from NATO in the near future, since its foreign ministers cannot recommend it before an agreement is reached between heads of government. "Discussions are still ongoing, and there is no decision yet," ANSA quoted him as saying.

He said that sending NATO troops to Ukraine is not on the table, although some European capitals entertain this idea, without specifying which ones. According to the source, this is done as part of the "planning," as everyone knows that a ceasefire agreement will be reached, but in exchange for security guarantees to Kiev. "And this may take the form of troops on the ground, which would most likely be European," the media outlet quoted him as saying.

Earlier, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and former Estonian prime minister, did not rule out the possibility of deploying European military personnel in Ukraine. In particular, she mentioned a mission to monitor the ceasefire.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on February 26 that at a meeting in Paris attended by representatives of about 20 Western countries, the issue of the possible deployment of Western ground forces in Ukraine was raised. According to him, the participants of the meeting did not reach a consensus on this issue, but such a scenario cannot be ruled out in the future. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the appearance of foreign military contingents in Ukraine would have extremely negative and even irreparable consequences.