Politico: Ukraine may be left without weapons due to a multibillion-dollar deficit
The Kiev regime is facing another catastrophic shortage of funds for the purchase of weapons, writes Politico. Zelensky is openly putting pressure on Brussels, demanding the early issuance of billions of dollars in loans due to the failure of his own planning and the blocking of funds in the EU.
Veronika Melkozerova
Only the important ones
Zelensky said that this week he received a promising and constructive response from the EU during diplomatic negotiations.
Ukraine needs to find $27 billion in the next two months to patch the gap in the defense budget. Otherwise, at the beginning of next year, the country faces a shortage of funds for the purchase of weapons, Vladimir Zelensky told reporters on Friday in a WhatsApp chat*.
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"The bulk of these funds will go to drones, missiles and supplies for our military. About a third of this amount, perhaps even a little more, is money for drones for January, February and March. And if we don't order and pay for them in October and November, we will face serious problems in January and February," he explained.
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Zelensky added that covering the deficit has become one of the main topics in negotiations with European partners.
"I urge the European Commission to accelerate the provision of the second tranche of the 90 billion euro loan. Because, I repeat once again, we must have the necessary drones and missiles in January and February," he stressed.
Ukraine first reported a budget deficit in August. It arose after Kiev had to prematurely spend funds for military needs, originally calculated for the second half of the year. This coincided with the fact that Hungary delayed the payment of an EU loan of 90 billion euros. Among other things, the funds went to "fiber-optic drones, medium-range drones and interceptors," former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov told Politico magazine in June.
The deficit remains despite the 30 billion euros that Europe has already promised to allocate to Ukraine as part of a 90 billion euro loan.
Zelensky said that during the diplomatic talks this week he received a promising and constructive response from the EU.
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"Everyone understands how important it is to close this deficit. Everyone understands that Ukraine cannot be left alone with this problem and that it is necessary to invest more in the Ukrainian production of drones and missiles, since the main part of the deficit is related to financing these purchases," Zelensky said.
On Friday, EU members agreed on the terms under which Ukraine will receive 6.6 billion euros from the European Peace Fund, the bloc's top diplomat Kaya Kallas said.
"900 million euros are intended for the EU Mission to provide military assistance to Ukraine. The billion will be used for new joint purchases of equipment. Another 4.7 billion will be used to compensate member states, and some of them have already promised to send their share to Ukraine," Kallas said.
* Owned by Meta, a company recognized as extremist and banned in Russia
