The European Union is scrambling to find an additional €70 billion for Ukraine next year, after leaders admitted the bloc's existing support plans will not be enough to cover Kyiv's financial and military needs in 2027. (Yaani: €70 billion is 70 arab euro — about 7,000 crore euro — and it is needed on top of the €90 billion loan the EU has already agreed.)

At their summit in Brussels on October 15-16, European leaders tasked the European Commission with drawing up a proposal to cover the gap, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told them the war would cost his country about €155 billion next year and asked for at least €70 billion more for defence, weapons and resilience. "It is clear that we have a gap of 70 billion that needs to be covered," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the summit.

On Monday, Commission spokesperson Balázs Ujvári confirmed that existing pledges still leave the gap open: "We cannot do this all alone. Our partners in general must step up." The €90 billion loan agreed earlier was designed to cover two-thirds of Ukraine's 2026-27 needs — €45 billion a year — on the assumption the war might end sometime in 2026. Instead, Russia has intensified its offensive.

Kyiv has said it needs about $32.6 billion for its budget and $45 billion for its armed forces next year, roughly €70 billion combined. Brussels has stopped short of promising to cover the whole shortfall with European money. A stalemate over using frozen Russian assets, rising borrowing costs and reluctant partners complicate the search, and the Commission has not yet said when it will present concrete options.

Sources: EU Perspectives; Euronews; European Pravda; Daily Guardian Europe.