🟦 AIR RAID SENDS EU PRESIDENT INTO KYIV SHELTER—ZELENSKYY PRESSES FOR FASTER FUNDING
European Council President António Costa was forced into an air-raid shelter alongside other senior European officials during his Independence Day visit to Kyiv—an immediate encounter with the danger Ukrainians live through every day.
Inside that reality, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Costa to accelerate the next disbursement from the European Union’s €90 billion support loan. Costa pledged to take the request forward and work toward faster delivery.The package covers 2026 and 2027, with €30 billion intended for Ukraine’s budget and €60 billion for military requirements. Ukraine has already received an initial €3.2 billion payment, but the remaining money is being released in stages. For Kyiv, delays can mean postponed weapons orders, fewer drones entering production and less money available to sustain the state during war.
The package covers 2026 and 2027, with €30 billion intended for Ukraine’s budget and €60 billion for military requirements. Ukraine has already received an initial €3.2 billion payment, but the remaining money is being released in stages. For Kyiv, delays can mean postponed weapons orders, fewer drones entering production and less money available to sustain the state during war.
The shelter experience did not create Europe’s policy, but it stripped away the abstraction. In Kyiv, funding schedules are measured against missiles, ammunition and the time available to protect lives.
Zelenskyy also renewed pressure over approximately €210 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets held across the EU, most of them through Belgium-based Euroclear. Europe is using the profits generated by those assets, but the principal remains untouched. Belgium fears legal and financial retaliation if the money itself is used, leaving one of Ukraine’s largest potential funding sources locked behind political caution.
Costa arrived to discuss figures on paper. Russia’s air raid provided the reminder: Ukraine does not have the luxury of waiting indefinitely for Europe to move its money.