The EU remains Ukraine’s largest donor since the beginning of Russia’s aggression, a role reinforced by the European Commission’s decision today to provide the Eastern European country with an additional €1 billion tranche under the Macro-Financial Assistance loan that has so far reached €5 billion. In total, the assistance mechanism provides EU funding of up to €18.1 billion. This is on top of a further €27 billion guaranteed by the G7-led Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration initiative. These resources, the Commission explained, will help Ukraine sustain military and reconstruction efforts. The EU loan will be repaid with the proceeds from frozen Russian assets in the EU. This week the EU has requested €2.1 billion in windfall profits generated from immobilised assets of the Russian Central Bank. This is the second such reimbursement to cover revenues accumulated during the second half of 2024. For the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s “commitment to Ukraine is as firm as ever. We work across the board to strengthen the country and support a just and lasting peace on Ukraine’s terms”.