Zelenskyy: First tranche of EUR 90 bln to go toward domestic production of Ukraine's defense

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the first tranche from the unlocked EUR 90 billion reparation loan for Ukraine from the European Union will go toward the development of Ukrainian defense production.

"There is a decision on billions. This is [EUR] 90 billion. Some 45 billion is for 2026. We are talking about several tranches. Of course, we will direct the first tranche toward domestic production of Ukraine’s means of protection. And not only protection. That is, drones and miltech – this whole direction," he said at a joint press conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Kyiv on Sunday.

Zelenskyy also noted that the second direction concerns energy. "The second story is energy. We talked about the fact that we need to protect everything we can in time, everything we are able to. This must be done to the maximum and prepare for winter. For this, in addition to local budgets, there is a part that we will be able to direct from the central budget. We have funding thanks to these tranches – 90 billion," the president said.

Zelenskyy added that Ukraine is counting on "several billion" euros that will be directed toward the economy, specifically for the protection of energy.

He noted that due to the delay in providing these funds, "we lost a little over these two months in terms of time and volume of production of the domestic product because we wanted to invest more money." "But now we will make up for it. And we are already at a good level of production – this is quite obvious," the president said.

The same, according to him, applies to the protection of energy. "I believe that we also lost one month. Of course, the restoration of the idea of energy complexes is underway in parallel, but serious sums from the first tranche of these 90 billion were not invested in energy protection. However, tasks have been set for everyone, and everyone will move very quickly," Zelenskyy added.