The European Commission has disbursed an additional €3.47 billion to Ukraine under the defense component of its €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan, providing funding for drones, missiles, air defense systems, and Gripen fighter jets.

The latest tranche comes as Ukraine faces intensified Russian missile and drone attacks and seeks to bolster its defense capabilities.

Funding to strengthen Ukraine's defense

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the new funding would help Ukraine defend its skies while deepening defense industrial cooperation between Kyiv and the European Union.

"Today, we are investing an additional €3.47 billion to help protect Ukraine's skies," von der Leyen said.

"With this new disbursement under our €90 billion loan package, we are helping Ukraine defend its people. We are also bringing our defense industries closer together, combining Europe's industrial scale with Ukraine's unmatched innovation. This is our new Drone Deal taking shape."

According to the Commission, the package includes another tranche under its drone procurement program and additional funding for drones, including long-range jet-powered drones, missiles, and Gripen fighter jets to help Ukraine rapidly acquire critical military equipment.

“The funding is provided in response to Ukraine's urgent military needs, as it continues to require capability support to defend itself against Russia's war of aggression,” the statement reads.

The Commission said further funding for drones, ammunition, air defense, and missiles would be approved and disbursed in the coming weeks.

Part of broader Ukraine Support Loan

The Ukraine Support Loan consists of €60 billion dedicated to strengthening Ukraine's defense capabilities and industrial capacity, alongside €30 billion in budget support to help keep the Ukrainian state functioning.

The latest payment follows previous disbursements of €3.2 billion under the EU's Macro-Financial Assistance program on 25 June, €3.9 billion under the defense window on 30 June, and €1.1 billion on 15 July.

The Commission said a total of €28.3 billion is expected to be allocated to Ukraine's defense industrial capacity during 2026, with the remaining funding scheduled for disbursement before the end of the year.

Ukraine welcomes latest tranche

Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi confirmed that Ukraine had received the €3.47 billion payment, saying the funds would strengthen the country's defenses and help finance its most urgent needs.

"These funds will strengthen our defense and help finance Ukraine's most urgent needs," Koretskyi wrote on X.

He said Ukraine has secured €11.6 billion under the Ukraine Support Loan so far this year, including €3.2 billion in budget support and €8.4 billion for defense, out of the €45 billion available under the mechanism in 2026.

"I am sincerely grateful to the European Commission and all EU Member States for their consistent and unwavering support," Koretskyi said. "Every euro invested in Ukraine strengthens our resilience, protects our people, and brings us closer to a just and lasting peace."

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, the European Union and its member states have provided more than €220 billion in support to Ukraine, including assistance financed through proceeds from immobilized Russian sovereign assets.

An Iskander missile that Russia fired at Kyiv Oblast on 10 July was built from more than 140 foreign parts, 62 of them American, and at least 20 were made in 2025—components that cleared every Western control and reached a Russian assembly line within about a year, Euromaidan Press reported.

Without those parts, Ukraine’s presidential sanctions commissioner Vladyslav Vlasiuk said, Russia could not build the weapon.

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62 of the 140 foreign parts in this Russian missile were American. Ukraine wants that gap closed

A paradox runs through Europe’s answer to that problem. The EU is preparing to blacklist more than 1,600 companies for helping Russia’s war industry, its largest single batch of corporate designations, Bloomberg reported, while at the same time deepening trade with India, a country the same Western parts move through on their way to Russia.

And closing that gap will matter even after the war ends: a new study of Russia’s arms makers finds they will keep producing weapons at wartime speed—and keep needing imported parts to do it—whether or not the fighting stops.

Ukraine has been pulling the same finding out of downed Russian drones and missiles for two years—Indian electronics in Shahed drones among them.

The India route grew before the trade deals arrived

A 29 July report by the strategic intelligence company Strider put a number on the wider channel: more than 50,000 sensitive goods, or goods with potential dual-use applications, reached Russian defense companies through Indian supply chains after the full-scale invasion.

The security intelligence firm compared totals from 2019 to 2021 with those from 2022 through the first quarter of 2025. Since the invasion, sensitive exports from India to Russia have multiplied several times over—and the sharpest jumps come from the countries deepening their own trade with India.

Swedish-origin goods rose almost sixfold. British, Swiss, and French exports of the same kind roughly doubled or more. The pattern extends beyond Europe: American-origin goods more than five times over, Australian goods even faster. German trade was the exception, falling by more than a third—though Germany still ships more of these goods through India than anyone.

Without those parts, Ukraine’s presidential sanctions commissioner Vladyslav Vlasiuk said, Russia could not build the weapon.

French carbon fiber—used in aircraft, drones, and missiles—reached Polymer Company LLC in Russia through India in 2025, according to Strider. The Russian government has designated the firm part of its military-industrial complex, and it supplies several restricted entities.

None of this shows that a part in the 10 July Iskander passed through India. It shows Western goods moving through the country where Britain’s trade deal took effect on 15 July and where the EU is targeting entry into force in 2027. Those deals expand legitimate commerce, not evasion.

Strider’s warning concerns what happens after Western goods enter long, opaque supply chains, and the report urged end-use monitoring to be written into the agreements themselves.

Brussels is preparing 1,600 more names

The blacklist Brussels is drafting would target companies rather than whole industries, reaching corners of Russia’s military supply chain that earlier rounds missed.

The firms have a combined annual turnover of more than $20 billion and employ more than a quarter of a million people. If members approve it, the number of EU-sanctioned entities would jump by half. Foreign ministers are expected to take it up in October.

The bloc’s 21st package, adopted on 23 July, had already tightened dual-use export curbs on dozens of firms, some outside the EU. Six days later, the firm published the scale of one route around exactly those curbs.

Russia plans to keep producing

That is why the flow of parts outlasts the war. A 14 July study of five major Russian defense manufacturers found them still dependent on imported components despite sanctions, corruption, labor shortages, and inflated costs—and likely to hold high output in select weapons while slowly rebuilding reserves.

Its sharpest warning is about time: Russia’s arms industry will probably stay on a wartime footing even if the shooting in Ukraine stops, while Western industry is unlikely to mobilize on that scale until a major war is already underway.

The Iskander compresses that long problem into a single year. At least 20 of its foreign parts were made in 2025, fitted into the missile, and fired at Kyiv Oblast on 10 July 2026.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged on July 4 that the European Union will help Moldova defend itself against hybrid threats by "agents of autocracy."

"We are committed to protecting you against the hybrid attacks and the energy shocks that your country has been a victim of," von der Leyen said following the EU-Moldova summit in Chisinau.

"Who is behind those attacks is clear to all of us here. These are the same agents of autocracy trying to undermine our democracies everywhere in Europe."

Von der Leyen praised Moldova's support for Ukraine and the EU, noting its acceptance of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and its assistance with European wildfire response efforts.

The visit was made in show of solidarity with Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, as it prepares for high-stakes parliamentary elections on Sept. 28.

The pro-European government of President Maia Sandu faces a challenge from the pro-Russian Socialist Party, amid growing fears of destabilization ahead of the vote.

Sandu has accused Russia of using its military presence in Moldova's Russian-occupied Transnistria region to stir unrest and derail the country's EU aspirations. On June 12, she warned that Moscow could provoke a crisis in Transnistria to influence the election outcome.

Transnistria has been under Russian-backed separatist control since the early 1990s, with approximately 1,000 to 1,500 Russian troops still stationed in the region.

On June 11, Transnistrian authorities declared a 30-day state of emergency after a sharp drop in natural gas supplies. The unrecognized region has faced mounting energy shortages since January, when Russian energy giant Gazprom halted deliveries in what many see as an attempt to destabilize the situation in Moldova.

Moldova was granted EU candidate status in 2022. Sandu's ruling Party of Action and Solidarity aims to maintain its parliamentary majority and move the country closer to full membership by 2030.

Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean earlier told the Financial Times that Russia plans to send 10,000 troops to Transnistria and establish a pro-Kremlin government in Moldova.

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reiterated the EU's ongoing support for Ukraine at a NATO summit in The Hague on June 24.

"We have designed a funding program of 50 billion euros, we call it Safe, where member states, but also Ukraine and other partners, can take these loans to invest in the (Ukrainian) defense industry," she said, addressing President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"We are integrating our defense industries as if Ukraine was in the EU. This is good for Ukraine. And just as good for Europe, as Ukraine is now home to extraordinary innovation," von der Leyen later said in a post to social media.

NATO is holding a summit in The Hague from June 24-25 with world leaders, including Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump present.

"(M)y dear friend Volodymyr, you're here among friends and we stand by Ukraine from the very first day on and you can count on us also for the future," von der Leyen said.

The leader described the EU's 18th sanctions package as a "biting one" to apply pressure on Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Secondly, of course, there's constant financial support to Ukraine because we know you're fighting a war that is also protecting our values and our principles, and thirdly, indeed, we have to put pressure on President Putin (so) that he comes to the negotiation table," von der Leyen said.

She noted that members of the Group of Seven (G7) will also be implementing additional sanctions against Russia.

"All this shows you are among friends, you can count on us, we stand by your side," von der Leyen said.

The White House has confirmed that Trump and Zelensky will hold a meeting at the NATO summit.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to attend a NATO summit in The Hague next week, the European Council confirmed on June 20.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte are set to meet Zelensky on June 24.

Zelensky was reportedly reconsidering attending the NATO summit, as questions remain over U.S. President Donald Trump's participation, the Guardian reported on June 17, citing unnamed Ukrainian officials.

A schedule released by the European Council on June 20 confirms Zelensky's planned participation at the event.

A Ukrainian official told the Guardian that Kyiv is in a "permanent hazard" of becoming a victim of "Trump's short attention span," adding that Russia has exploited this uncertainty with fresh aerial attacks.

There were "all sorts of promises for this summit," including U.S. arms, the source said.

Zelensky was scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the Group of Seven (G7) Summit, held June 15-17.

Trump left the multilateral event early due to the renewed conflict between Israel and Iran.

Zelensky met with various leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Zelensky left the summit early, citing Russia's mass drone and missile attack on Kyiv.

On June 17, a Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv killed 30 people and injured another 172. The nearly nine-hour-long strike saw Moscow's forces launch large numbers of drones and missiles at Ukraine's capital.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned the attack, describing it as a "massive and brutal strike" timed deliberately to coincide with the G7 summit.

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The Group of Seven (G7) nations need to impose harsher sanctions on Moscow in order to secure a ceasefire in the war against Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said at the start of the G7 summit in Canada.

The G7 Leaders Summit kicked off on June 15 in Kananaskis, Canada, with official talks held June 16-17. While Ukraine hopes to win economic support and unified pressure against Russia, the rapidly escalating conflict between Israel and Iran may dominate this year's conference.

"To achieve peaceful strength we must put more pressure on Russia to secure a real ceasefire, to bring Russia to the negotiating table, and to end this war. Sanctions are critical to that end," von der Leyen said at a press briefing on June 15 attended by a Kyiv Independent journalist.  

Economic sanctions have been an effective intervention since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, von der Leyen said. She noted that combined G7 and European Union sanctions have decreased Russian oil and gas revenues by nearly 80% since February 2022.

"(T)he sanctions are working, and we will do more," she said.

Von der Leyen urged the G7 to adapt the economic restrictions proposed in the EU's 18th sanctions package, announced on June 10. The new measures target Russia's energy and banking sectors and propose a further reduction in the oil price cap, bringing the cap down from $60 to $45 per barrel.

"I will invite all G7 partners to join us in this endeavor," she said.

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Costa echoed the call for sanctions and the necessity of economic pressure in order to achieve a ceasefire. Europe is committed to "increasing additional sanctions to cripple (Russia's) ability to wage war and pressing for an unconditional ceasefire," he said.

Europe's call for unity may meet with resistance from the United States, which has assumed a dramatically different posture towards Ukraine and Russia since President Donald Trump took office in January. Trump has not imposed any new sanctions against Russia, even Moscow blatantly obstructs peace efforts and escalates mass strikes against Ukrainian cities.

The U.S. also reportedly opposes lowering the G7 oil price cap — a measure first introduced in December 2022 that prohibits Western companies from shipping, insuring, or otherwise servicing Russian oil sold above $60 per barrel.

The price cap debate has become more urgent as oil prices, which had fallen below the $60 cap in recent months, surged following Israel's recent strikes against Iran.

Despite U.S. resistance, the EU and the United Kingdom — backed by other European G7 countries and Canada — have said they are prepared to move forward with the proposal, even without Washington's endorsement.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the other hand, has said the EU sanctions and proposed price cap drop don't go far enough. Zelensky on June 11 said the EU's 18th round of sanctions "could be stronger" and proposed further slashing the oil price cap to $30 per barrel.

"A ceiling of $45 per barrel of oil is better than $60, that's clear, that's true. But real peace will come with a ceiling of $30," he said. "That's the level that will really change the mindset in Moscow."

Zelensky and Trump are expected to meet on the sidelines of the G7 summit on June 17. The meeting will mark their third in-person encounter since Trump took office.

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