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be distributed among four US departments. As structured, $21.7B will be sent to the Pentagon for Ukraine’s defensive support, $14.5B will be allocated to the State Department for direct support for Ukraine’s budget, the Ministry of Energy will receive $626M to support Ukraine's nuclear security and to modernize the Strategic Oil Reserve. Also, $900M will be sent to the Ministry of Energy and Health and Social Services to resolve humanitarian problems.
Ukraine received another tranche in the amount of €2.5bn within the exceptional eighth EU Macro-Financial Assistance program (MFA), the Ministry of Finance announced on November 22. The total amount of Macro-Financial Assistance provided to Ukraine by the EU, from February 24 and up to today, reaches €6.7bn, the Ministry of Finance said. It is assumed that Ukraine will receive the last tranche under the specified MFA program by the end of this year, the ministry said. As reported, in late May-early June this year, the EU provisionally approved the provision of new emergency MFA to Ukraine for €9bn, of which €1bn was given early August. The remaining €8bn was expected to come in one tranche, but the final decision on them dragged on. One of the reasons cited is the debate over how these funds should be provided: in the form of loans or grants. Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter, “We will keep on supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes.” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal thanked the EU for its assistance, describing the move as another gesture of solidarity. As a result, only €2bn was received in mid-October, while European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said that the third tranche of €3bn is expected early December. Later, he said that €2.5bn will arrive at the end of November, and €5bn at the beginning of December, while the remaining €3bn of the initial €9bn is included in the new financial assistance program for Ukraine in 2023 for a total of €18bn.
The EU is mobilising €1B to export food from Ukraine. According to the European Commission, to increase global food security and help Ukraine export agricultural products, €1B is being mobilised within the framework of the EU's Paths of Solidarity initiative. It is noted that Paths of Solidarity and the Black Sea Grain Initiative have allowed the export of about 25 million tons of Ukrainian grain, oilseeds, and related products from May to the end of October. In addition, the Solidarity routes are currently the only option for exporting all other non-food goods from Ukraine and importing all essential goods, such as fuel and humanitarian aid. Thus, Paths of Solidarity have become a lifeline for Ukraine’s economy, returning more than €15B in profit to Ukrainian farmers and enterprises, the declaration said. At the same time, the Solidarity Paths’ capacity is reaching its limit, bottlenecks remain, and logistics costs are high. Therefore, €1B will be utilized to support and further increase the capacity of the Solidarity Paths.
Ukraine expects €3B in investments from the EBRD by the end of next year. The Minister of Economy of Ukraine, Yulia Svyridenko, met in London with the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Odile Renaud-Basso. The conversation’s main topic was the EBRD’s strategy for its presence in Ukraine. The organization’s experience in providing assistance with project financing this year will allow for increasing the scope of the EBRD's activities in Ukraine. The EBRD’s ambition and the government's goals will make it possible to implement investments worth up to €3B next year, the Ministry of Economy noted. According to Svyridenko, the Ukrainian government is betting on the development of such priority industries as the digital economy, agriculture, processing, food, and metallurgy.
42 UKRAINE Country Report December 2022 www.intellinews.com