The European Commission has officially approved providing Ukraine with a EUR 6.1 billion support loan to purchase drones and missiles for Patriot air defense systems, EU Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius said.
"Today I'll share news about our decisions under the Ukraine support loan. Today the European Commission officially approved allocating EUR 6.1 billion from this loan for the purchase of drones and missiles for Ukraine's air defense systems," he told reporters in Brussels on Friday.
Kubilius called this a genuinely important step forward, saying the Commission had worked hard with member states and Ukraine to reach this point, and that the decision formally allows Ukraine to purchase PAC-3 missiles for Patriot systems.
He explained that for EU funding to be used to purchase weapons from third countries, member states must adopt a separate decision. This package, financed under the Ukraine support loan, involves five departures from standard procurement eligibility rules, he said: three concern drones and components of Ukrainian manufacture whose cost exceeds set limits, and two concern equipment made in the United States, including PAC-3 missiles, among them procurement carried out through a joint purchasing mechanism coordinated by NATO.
The commissioner said Ukraine's military edge depends on the rapid availability of critical equipment in the necessary volumes and on very short timelines. Speeding up the delivery of needed equipment by drawing on existing stockpiles, reprioritizing orders and scaling up production remains a decisive task, he stressed, adding that today's decision means the full EUR 28.3 billion allocated this year from the Ukraine support loan has now been assigned to the country's defense needs.
He said the European Commission is currently processing payment requests worth EUR 4.7 billion, in addition to the EUR 8.3 billion already disbursed earlier. The disbursement process is therefore also moving forward, he said, noting that before transferring funds, the Commission verifies contracts to ensure they comply with the terms of the Ukraine support loan and with procurement rules agreed with member states.
