The European Union proposes to member states to create a fund to provide Ukraine with military aid worth EUR 20 billion to EUR 40 billion, including 2 million pieces of ammunition, on a voluntary basis in order to avoid a veto from Hungary, the Euractiv news portal reports.

"Last month, the EU's diplomatic arm had proposed to set up an EU-level scheme to send 1.5 million ammunition rounds to Ukraine. The text seen by Euractiv did not feature any figure for the amount of cash needed to complete the job. Considering Hungary's constant refusal to participate in any scheme that would support Ukraine, either militarily or non-militarily via the EU channels, the proposal was rewritten to include "participating member states"," the report states.

"The newest version of the proposal seen by Euractiv reads that countries "are encouraged to deliver military support to Ukraine in 2025 with a provisional value of at least EUR 20 billion, and potentially reaching EUR 40 billion pending Ukrainian needs"," it reads.

"As a first step, leaders should agree on spending EUR 5 billion for 2 million rounds of large-caliber artillery ammunition in 2025 in accordance, with the text proposes. Each country would participate according to its economic weight, either via cash or directly in kind. The EU itself will count the EUR 1.9 billion from its windfall profits from the Russian frozen assets as its contribution, even though they have already been committed and partly disbursed," according to the article.

"The priorities should be large-caliber artillery ammunition, air defense systems, missiles, drones, fighter jets, but also any support to the regeneration of brigades, which usually includes maintenance on equipment and non-lethal support. More broadly, the list features "member states’ contributions to security guarantees for Ukraine", with no more details. And any other military support considered a priority by Kyiv will be counted as part of this scheme," the text adds.

"The text was communicated to the EU countries on Thursday, ahead of a foreign ministers meeting on Monday. Leaders will gather in a summit next week too, notably to discuss aid to Ukraine and stepping up their defense capabilities. The deadline for countries to express interest in joining the scheme is April 30," the report says.