EU's Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell addresses media during a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister in Kyiv, on Feb. 7, 2024. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)
The European Commission handed Ukraine 4.5 billion euros ($4.8 billion) in its first tranche of macro-financial assistance on March 20.
The EU approved the four-year Ukraine Facility in February, allocating 33 billion euros ($36 billion) in loans and 17 billion euros ($18.6 billion) in grants.
"Today we also made the first payment of 4.5 billion euros under the Ukraine Facility, our 50 billion euro ($54 billion) package to support the recovery, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine," said Josep Borrell, the EU's top diplomat.
"And tomorrow, the European Council will discuss how to further speed up Ukraine's accession (to the EU)," he added.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will "help our wonderful American energy companies gain access from Central Asia all the way to the United States," Trump wrote.
The transfer would further expand Ukraine's fleet of Western-supplied fighter aircraft, which already includes American F-16s and French Mirage 2000s but remains insufficient to fully defend Ukrainian cities and infrastructure from daily Russian missile and drone attacks
The strikes are a part of Ukraine's ongoing "long-range sanctions" campaign targeting Russia's military-industrial and energy infrastructure deep behind the front line, as Kyiv seeks to impose higher costs on Moscow's war effort.
The latest estimates appear to be significantly higher than figures published earlier this month by independent Russian media outlets Mediazona and Meduza that estimated 352,000 Russian men between the ages of 18 and 59 have been killed since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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