EU Leaders Back Ukraine but Stall on €70bn Funding Gap

Three people died in Kharkiv on the morning of October 16, when Russian drones hit an outdoor market. Two were vendors. Thirteen others were injured, while strikes elsewhere left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without power. In Brussels, EU leaders spent two days pledging solidarity with Kyiv. They left without agreeing how to pay for it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked EU leaders for at least €70 billion ($79 billion) in additional funding next year. He said Ukraine's war costs would reach €155 billion ($174 billion), money needed for defence, weapons and resilience. Ukraine could produce two or three times more drones, depending on the type, but it lacks the funds. Kyiv told the G7 that €40 billion ($45 billion) of its 2027 defence needs remains unfunded.

Human Impact

The request comes in the fifth year of a war now four-and-a-half years old, with winter approaching. Zelenskyy asked for more Patriot missiles and urged European countries to use their own stocks, including air-defence systems, to meet Ukraine's winter needs. Al Jazeera correspondent Rosie Birchard described the appeal as emotional. She noted that drawing on European stocks could compromise some countries' national security.

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal didn't soften the picture. "Last winter was already hell, this one will be once again like hell," he said. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia is trying to destroy energy and water infrastructure. She pledged, "But we stand by your side. We will support you as we did in the other winters." Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten called the situation "truly dire," citing numerous Russian attacks and tense Ukraine-US relations.

The Policy Gap

Words came easily. A financing decision didn't. European Council President Antonio Costa said, "This is no time to withdraw support to Ukraine. This is no time to relieve Russia's sanctions. Now it is time to increase our support, to increase our pressure." Von der Leyen later said the €70 billion "has to be covered" and urged partner countries to "step in." Leaders asked the Commission to prepare a financing proposal. Costa said they had agreed to address Ukraine's additional 2027 needs.

But the summit concluded October 16 without a decision on Ukraine financing or on the EU's 2028-2034 budget, a package of nearly €2 trillion that includes almost €100 billion for Ukraine. Leaders pushed decisions to gatherings in November and December, including an extraordinary budget summit on November 26. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said member states are "incredibly far apart," adding, "There isn't even a glimpse, as they say, a shred of agreement on this." Germany leads a group seeking a smaller budget, while the "Friends of Cohesion" want a larger one.

Austria urged caution. Chancellor Christian Stocker said the many figures in circulation need context, and officials must make clear where the shortfall comes from. Michal said the EU would probably need a new loan to cover the budget gap. The EU is already paying instalments on a €90 billion loan intended to cover Kyiv's funding through the end of 2027.

Frozen Assets and the Washington Problem

The request revived debate over frozen Russian central-bank assets. France 24 reported calls to tap about €200 billion; POLITICO described discussion of roughly €300 billion. Most of the assets sit in Belgium, which remained opposed. Latvia's premier Andris Kulbergs said, "The frozen assets are there. That's what should be used for supporting Ukraine." Kristersson said "nothing has changed" and short-term support must come from other sources. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz rejected a US proposal, presented by envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Miami, to move some reserves into a Washington-overseen vehicle. "These are assets that are frozen in Europe, and they should remain frozen in Europe," Merz said.

Europe is weighing these choices as ties with Washington deteriorate. The United States eased sanctions on Russian oil products as part of a deal for Russia to supply diesel to global markets. Zelenskyy said the move would put "more money straight into Putin's pocket to fund this war." Trump called Ukraine's renewed strikes on Russian refineries "a disgrace" and said, "I find Zelensky to be more difficult to deal with than Putin." Birchard reported that some European officials privately urged Zelenskyy to dial down his public criticism of Trump, fearing they'd antagonise the United States.

Disruption to Starshield, the US-provided military satellite system SpaceX operates, hampered Ukraine's ability to counter Russian bombardments. Zelenskyy said the speed hadn't fully returned and that the disruption put civilians at risk. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, "Starlink is really necessary for Ukraine. And unfortunately, in short term, Europe can't replace this capability." Macron said Europe is working to help with satellite imagery and early-warning systems.

Zelenskyy said Putin "does not want peace talks at the moment, in any form," and called Moscow's stance "a parody of a genuine desire to end the war." The Kremlin said Ukraine had undermined the prospect of an immediate resumption of talks.

Division Beyond Ukraine

The summit also exposed rifts elsewhere. Denmark, Italy and Poland proposed language linking irregular migration to crime rates and calling it a threat to European social cohesion. Around 10 countries, including Hungary, backed the proposal, diplomats told POLITICO. It indirectly targeted Spain, where Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez plans to regularize about 1 million irregular migrants. Leaders deleted the paragraphs from the final conclusions, leaving only a shortened version. Macron called the debate "a bad debate because it has been highly politicized and it has been a major source of division around the table." Von der Leyen said the Commission would propose an emergency response framework before year's end for sudden mass movements like the one that disrupted the Spanish exclave of Ceuta this summer.

A push led by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to weaken the emissions trading scheme ETS2 took up hours of discussion but was defeated.

Macron, who leaves office next year ahead of a presidential election in April and June, warned he would lack a political mandate to sign a budget deal if leaders don't reach one by year's end. Failing to decide, he said, would not "be a good method from a democratic standpoint."

Why This Matters: Ukraine's winter needs are fixed; the EU's decision calendar isn't. Leaders promised not to withdraw support, yet they left Brussels without an agreed way to close a €70 billion gap, with the next real decision points weeks away. For Ukrainians facing power cuts and strikes on markets and energy networks, that delay carries a human cost measured in cold and fear. It also shows the limits of EU solidarity when national budgets, frozen-asset politics and an unpredictable Washington collide. The summit's handling of migration and the budget points the same way: a union that can agree on principles but struggles to deliver the money and mechanisms. The Commission's coming proposal will face the test of closing that gap democratically and quickly.