There are doubts about accountability and transparency — the EU explained why it is reluctant to cover Ukraine's budget deficit

The European Union needs to carefully assess and determine the scale of Ukraine's growing budgetary needs before deciding how to cover them.

This was stated in an interview with Euronews by Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for the Economy.

“First of all, we need to accurately determine what additional funding needs exist, and then discuss with the Ukrainian authorities how we will finance them,” Dombrovskis explained, noting that a loan of 90 billion euros allows for “some adjustments.”

Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy surprised allies by asking them to cover the deficit of the Ministry of Defense amounting to $27 billion (23 billion euros).

In Kyiv, it is explained that the deficit arose due to shifting funds intended for the second half of the year to finance expenses for the first six months.

23 billion euros are needed to finance personnel, social support, and weapons procurement. In particular, about 6 billion euros represent advances for deliveries scheduled for the beginning of 2027 year.

At the same time, Brussels is not yet convinced of the need for additional funding and wants a comprehensive analysis to determine the scale of the deficit, its causes, and possible ways to cover it. The International Monetary Fund is also involved in the technical talks.

The unexpected deficit called into question the level of accountability and transparency — problems that have accompanied Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The country has repeatedly faced corruption scandals, as well as reports of fraud, waste, and misallocation of funds.

“We place a very high emphasis on proper governance, sound financial management, and fighting corruption across all these programs, and they are also part of the conditions of our macro-financial aid program,” Dombrovskis stressed.

As a reminder, at the beginning of September, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko stated that the current budget situation in Ukraine is the most difficult since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 year.

As reported, the Verkhovna Rada plans to speed up consideration of 46 bills necessary for Ukraine to fulfill its obligations to international partners. In particular, this concerns fulfilling the conditions of the Ukraine Facility program and cooperation with the IMF.

“Argument”