EU has received request from Ukraine to pay for Patriot missiles using €90 billion loan: ’It’s moving in right direction’, - von der Leyen
EU member states are currently considering Ukraine’s request to use several billion euros from a loan totalling 90 billion euros to purchase PAC-3 missiles for the Patriot air defence systems.
This was stated by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, before the start of her meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on 2 September, according to Censor.NET, which cites European Truth.
The EU is considering the request
She stated that the EU is preparing to fund the purchase of missiles for the Patriot air defence systems for Ukraine.
"Today I can confirm that we have received a new request for funding. It amounts to several billion euros and is intended to cover the costs of Ukraine’s air defence, including the highly effective PAC-3 air defence systems," said the President of the European Commission.
According to von der Leyen, "Member States are currently considering Ukraine’s request".
"I can say that he is moving in the right direction," she emphasised.
Anti-ballistic systems
Von der Leyen also pointed out that the EU is working alongside Ukraine to develop its own anti-ballistic missile defence systems – the ‘Freya’ project.
"All this is in addition to the €90 billion loan to support Ukraine, which is already in place. Since June, we have allocated €8.5 billion from this loan for drones and missiles for Ukraine, and these funds will also be used to purchase fighter jets from European manufacturers," she said.
What led up to it
It was previously reported that Ukraine had officially asked the European Commission to allocate more than 2 billion euros from the EU’s total loan of 90 billion euros for the purchase of interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defence systems.
Information
- The European Commission had previously received a list from Ukraine of the military equipment on which it plans to spend the bulk of the remaining €6 billion from the defence tranche of the loan — most of the items relate to equipment manufactured in Ukraine and the EU, predominantly drones.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that Ukraine had reached an agreement with the US on monthly supplies of interceptor missiles for the Patriot system. At the same time, he highlighted a shortage of these missiles: according to him, Ukraine needs to receive at least around 5 per cent of US-manufactured missiles of this type to get through the winter.
