France will renew its Ukraine Fund after a successful first round, allocating 71 million euros ($84 million) to foster investment from French companies in Ukraine next year.
"This is a setback and a message we didn't want to send today," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
Ukrainian forces struck four Russian military targets on the occupied Crimean Peninsula and in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Mykolaiv oblasts, the General Staff said on Feb. 23.
Drones operated by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) struck a "critical" Russian oil transportation hub, the Kaleykino oil pumping station, in the Republic of Tatarstan overnight on Feb. 23, an undisclosed source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent.
"We are in the process of preparing," the President's Office head Kyrylo Budanov said.
"The same thing (Vladimir) Putin is doing: he pays each person money for a contract. We want this as well, but we do not have enough funds," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
As Ukraine pushes for a fast-tracked entry to the EU, senior European officials say they are worried about progress on key reforms needed to secure the country’s European aspirations. Ukraine failed to complete 11 reforms in the last three months of 2025 required to unlock European funds, according to RRR4U, a consortium of Ukrainian think tanks, and is on track to miss more reforms in the first three months of 2026 — putting a total of five billion euros ($5.8 billion) of EU funding at risk.
The Kyiv Independent’s Business Desk covers the biggest news in business, economics, and tech from Ukraine, as well as global developments that shape the economy of the region.
The Votkinsk Plant is a strategic, state-owned defense enterprise and one of the most important missile factories in Russia. It produces Iskander ballistic missiles — used in attacks against Ukraine — and nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.
