EU pumping €90B into Ukraine without clear burden-sharing plan, MEP warns

The EU is pumping €90 billion ($105 billion) into Ukraine without knowing how the burden of the interest-free loan will be distributed among member states, German MEP Fabio De Masi told the Berliner Zeitung, warning that the money will enrich “corrupt oligarchs” in Ukraine.

Member states gave the green light to the scheme in April, with Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia securing exemptions.

On Monday, German MEP Fabio De Masi, who co-chairs the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance party, told the Berliner Zeitung that the “European Commission apparently doesn’t even know the extent to which EU member states will have to guarantee the Ukraine loan.”

He cited the commission’s response to his inquiry, which said that a “breakdown [of the financial burden] by member state” could not be provided.

De Masi said the funds, which are being backed by joint EU borrowing on the capital market, would end up enriching “corrupt oligarchs” in Ukraine.

“One wonders how the German government and parliament could have waved through this bottomless pit of debt without a thorough assessment of the consequences,” he added, as quoted by the daily.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the EU has given more than €216 billion to Kiev. Germany has spent over €43.3 billion, while earmarking an additional €57.6 billion in military aid for the coming years, thus emerging as Ukraine’s top backer within the bloc.

In late June, the European Commission began disbursing the first €3.2 billion tranche as part of the scheme, under which Ukraine is due to receive €30 billion in budgetary aid and €60 billion for its military needs in 2026 and 2027. The installment was soon followed by another 3.9 billion earmarked for drone procurement.

European Council head Antonio Costa previously said Ukraine would only need to pay back the money after it receives reparations from Russia following the conclusion of the conflict. Moscow has dismissed the notion as “detached from reality.”

Commenting on the EU loan scheme, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the bloc of “digging into the pockets of its own taxpayers” to prolong the conflict.

In an article for Politico Europe in June which the Brussels-based media outlet eventually rejected, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued that EU leaders view the Kiev regime as a battering ram against Russia, with no regard for the lives of ordinary Ukrainians.