20 Mar, 11:53

EU summit to mull €5 bln in military aid to Ukraine, €40 bln off table — diplomacy chief

Kaja Kallas cited "worries with budget deficits" across the eurozone

BRUSSELS, March 20. /TASS/. The European Union will discuss sending €5 billion in military aid to Kiev, not the €40 billion it initially proposed, Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told reporters ahead of today’s summit.

"First, we are going to discuss Ukraine. <…> For Ukraine, I’ve proposed an initiative to really go with ammunition in the amount of €5 billion," the European diplomacy chief said. When asked why the EU is no longer considering her previous proposal to provide €40 billion in support to Kiev, she cited "worries with budget deficits" across the eurozone.

"The realistic plan would be €5 billion for the ammunition," she specified.

Earlier, the European Commission announced plans to supply two million artillery rounds to Ukraine in 2025.

Ahead of the summit, Hungary rejected Kallas’s plan to round up to €40 billion in additional military support for Ukraine. While sources in Brussels originally said that EU countries would agree on this level of support without Hungary, as the summit drew nearer it turned out that a number of other EU states, too, would oppose the €40 billion plan.

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