EU to approve Ukraine's Patriot funding request on Sept. 11, officials say

The European Commission is set to greenlight the final 28.3-billion-euro ($33-billion) tranche of this year's defense loans for Ukraine, including an approval for the purchase of U.S.-made Patriot missiles, on Sept. 11, EU and national diplomats confirmed to the Kyiv Independent.

The purchase concerns PAC-3 interceptors, a key tool for defending Ukraine's skies against Russian ballistic missile attacks.

The EU was expected to greenlight the request on Sept. 7, and Ukrainian public media Suspilne reported on that day that the decision had been made.

However, while member states have backed the request, one step remains before formal EU approval can be granted, the Kyiv Independent has learned after speaking with EU and national diplomats.

The European Commission still needs to draft the agreement and publish a communication to that effect, which is expected on Sept. 11.

EU approval is required because the terms of the bloc's 90 billion-euro ($104-billion) support loan, from which the 28.3-billion-euro tranche is drawn, impose restrictions on purchasing products from outside the EU, Ukraine, or Norway.

The terms specify that the loan must be spent on materiel that sources 65% of its components from the countries listed above. Products that do not fit this criterion must be granted an exception.

The EU has already approved one such exception for Chinese drone components in April 2026.

The request for a derogation to buy U.S. Patriot missiles was submitted by then-Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov just before he was fired by President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 15.

However, an approval to buy Patriots missiles is not the same thing as Ukraine actually having new interceptors. There is a global shortage of such missiles, and the Freyja interceptor system, which Ukraine and its European partners are developing, is expected to begin live tests only in mid-2027.

The European Commission's approval of the request to buy Patriots is also expected to greenlight roughly 6 billion euros ($7 billion) in Ukrainian defense spending plans.

That would then mean that the full 28.3 billion euros of planned spending have been approved.

However, Ukraine has received only about 8.4 billion euros ($9.8 billion) of the total because of delays in providing the specific invoices and receipts for the purchases, which the EU must cross-check to ensure the money is spent as planned.