The European Commission today paid Kiev the final installment of €1.5 billion under the Macroeconomic Financial Assistance package for Ukraine, bringing total support to €18 billion in 2023.

With this instrument, the EU helped Ukraine meet its immediate financing needs in 2023 through stable, predictable and significant financial support. This support will help Ukraine continue to pay salaries and pensions and keep essential public services open, such as hospitals, schools and housing for displaced people. It will also allow Ukraine to ensure macroeconomic stability and restore critical infrastructure destroyed by Russia in its war of aggression, such as energy infrastructure, water systems, transport networks, roads and bridges.

“Today we received the last €1.5 billion of the €18 billion financial aid package. I hope for continued, unwavering support from the EU,” Prime Minister Dennis Schmihal wrote on the social networking platform X.

The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen stated: “As Ukraine continues to face Russia’s violent war of aggression, we must continue to support her to ensure its economic stability, reform and rebuild it. This is the reason why we are working hard to find an agreement next year on our proposal for €50 billion in aid for Ukraine by 2027.”

Today’s payment comes after the Commission found on 14 December that Ukraine has successfully implemented the agreed policy terms and complied with reporting requirements, which aim to ensure transparent and efficient use of the funds.

The successful implementation of the Macroeconomic Financial Assistance for Ukraine (MFA+) clearly demonstrates European solidarity, which has provided a total of almost €85 billion in humanitarian, economic and military support to Ukraine and its people since the start of Russia’s war of aggression in February 2022.

Anxiety in Kiev about the next “packages”

Ukraine’s economy is heavily dependent on financial support from partners, and Kiev is worried whether it will continue to receive aid as new packages are blocked in both the EU and the United States.

For 2024Ukraine hopes to receive 18.5 billion euros from the EU and more than 8 billion dollars from a pack of USA which also includes critical military assistance. Approval of both packages has been postponed until early next year.

The country’s economy can cope for the next few months until foreign aid arrives, but 2024 is sure to be tougher than this year and Kiev will need to rely more on its own resources. The country managed to reduce its external financing needs for 2024 from $41 billion to $37.3 billion, Marchenko said yesterday, Wednesday, after taking measures to maximize budget revenues and activating the domestic debt securities market.

“While defense and security are financed by the domestic budget, we rely on the help of international partners in order to respond to the needs of the social sphere,” he said.