WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine to receive 6 bln euro from EU in next two months, PM says

Ukraine will receive 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) from the European Union via its four-year Ukraine facility in the next two months, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday.

The government expects to receive 4.5 billion euros in March and another 1.5 billion euros in April, Shmyhal told a government meeting.

"This year, we aim to receive about 16 billion euros from the European Union. Ukraine will have the resources to fight and win. It is our key objective and we will do everything possible for it," Shmyhal said.

With the war against Russia now in its third year, Ukraine is critically dependent on economic and military support from its Western allies.

Billions in economic aid in the first two years of the war helped the government to maintain macroeconomic stability, tame inflation and ensure timely payments of pensions and public sector wages.

Ukraine channels most of its domestic budget revenues to fund its defence efforts.

Finance ministry data showed that Ukraine received about $73.6 billion in foreign financing in 2022 and 2023.

But in the first two months of this year, Kyiv received only $1.2 billion as major financing packages were delayed or blocked.

Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko has said the country needs about $3 billion a month to be able to get through 2024.

The government borrowed more from the domestic debt market and asked the state companies to make some obligatory budget payments in advance to meet spending needs in the first two months of the year.

The European Union eventually approved its four-year 50 billion euro financing program for Ukraine last month, military and economic aid from the United States remains stalled.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian kamikaze drones kill two in Russia – governor

Two people have been killed and another severely wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia’s Belgorod Region, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said.

The attack, which involved three kamikaze-drones, targeted the outskirts of the village of Rozhdestvenka, located near Russia’s border with Ukraine, Gladkov wrote in a post on Telegram on Friday.  

“As a result of the explosions, two people were killed and a third man was seriously injured,” he said.

An earthmover machine and some other construction equipment was damaged in the attack, according to the governor.

Earlier on Friday, Gladkov reported that a Ukrainian UAV had dropped an explosive device on a facility at an agricultural enterprise in the village of Maslova Pristan. The blast damaged the roof of the building but no human casualties resulted from this attack, he added.

At least five drones were shot down by air defenses in other parts of Belgorod Region earlier in the day, the governor said.

Throughout the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, Ukraine has been targeting Russian territory with drones almost on a daily basis.

This week the attacks were most intense on Wednesday, with incursions by UAVs reported in the Ukraine-bordering regions of Voronezh, Kursk, and Belgorod. Most of the drones were destroyed. However, in Kursk Region a strike by a UAV caused a fire at an oil depot.

On Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that a total of 796 Ukrainian drones have been shot down over the past week.

Reuters/RT