The European Union’s plan to spend up to 20 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine is facing resistance from EU countries and may not survive in its current form, several diplomatic sources told Reuters.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, proposed in July that the EU bloc set up a fund of up to 5 billion euros a year over four years as part of a broader Western security commitment to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.

But as EU defense ministers are set to discuss the plan in Brussels on Tuesday, diplomats say several countries, including Germany, a major EU power, have expressed reservations about committing such sums years ago.

The EU and its members have been among the biggest donors of military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, providing weapons and equipment worth around 25 billion euros, according to the bloc’s diplomatic service.

Borrell’s proposal is an attempt to provide aid on a long-term basis by creating a fund to help Ukraine within a larger fund, the European Peace Fund, which is used to reimburse EU members for money spent on military aid to other countries.

“I’m not going to declare the project dead right now”

“For now, I’m not going to declare the project dead. But, of course, improvements can always be made,” said a high-ranking EU diplomat on the condition of anonymity on Friday.

“Germany had a lot of questions… and rightly so. We are talking about big money,” he added. In the context, it is worth reminding that on Sunday, Germany will double the planned military aid to Ukraine in 2024.

The debate over military aid comes at a time when EU countries are also debating a proposal to provide Ukraine with 50 billion euros in economic aid.

The EU also faces problems related to other aspects of military aid to Ukraine. Numerous officials and diplomats say the bloc will struggle to meet its goal of supplying Kyiv with 1 million artillery shells and missiles by March next year.

For several months, Hungary blocked payments of 500 million euros from the Peace Support Facility to EU members to help Ukraine because Kyiv blacklisted the Hungarian bank OTP. Since the bank was removed from the blacklist, Hungary insisted that it wanted guarantees that it would not return there.

Emphasis is placed on bilateral aid packages to Ukraine

EU governments have stressed that long-term EU military aid must be aligned with the packages of security measures each EU country negotiates with Kyiv, making it difficult to set a price while those negotiations are ongoing.

At an EU summit last month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the focus for now should be on such bilateral packages.

Some EU members also argued that it would be difficult for them to make significant long-term commitments because domestic budgets are limited. “For some member states, there is a reality of public finances,” said a second EU diplomat.

A third European diplomat said Borrell’s original proposal was unlikely to be accepted, but many countries still wanted to commit at the EU level.

The three diplomats suggested that eventually the EU could decide to commit year by year, rather than commit to paying a larger sum over four years.

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