President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine needs European financial support to continue fighting Russian forces for another two or three years.
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Kyiv has been largely dependent on military and financial support from allies abroad to hold off Moscow’s army, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“I emphasised this again to all European leaders. I told them that we are not going to fight for decades, but you must show that for some time you will be able to provide stable financial support to Ukraine,” Zelensky said in comments released on Tuesday.
“And that is why they have this programme in mind – two to three years,” Zelensky said, referring to Brussels’ plans to tap Russia’s frozen assets to help Kyiv.
European Union leaders last week tasked the European Commission to move ahead with options for funding Ukraine for two more years, leaving the door open for a mammoth loan using tens of billions of euros in Russian state assets that the bloc has frozen.
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“If the war ends in a month, we will spend this money on recovery. If it does not end in a month, but after some time, then we will spend it on weapons. We simply have no other choice,” Zelensky added.