Europe has become Ukraine’s main donor: what kind of assistance has the country received?
11 February 15:16
Despite the fact that the United States stopped supporting Ukraine after Donald Trump became president, the total amount of aid allocated to Kyiv in 2025 remained relatively stable thanks to a significant increase in support from European countries. This is indicated by an analytical report published on Wednesday, February 11, prepared by experts from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) in collaboration with analysts from the Ukraine Support Tracker (UST) project, which tracks the progress of military aid to the country, which has been defending itself against Russian military aggression for about four years, reports "Komersant Ukrainian".
According to the study, European military aid to Ukraine increased by 67 percent in 2025 compared to the average for 2022-2024. Financial and humanitarian support from the EU and individual European countries increased by 59 percent. All indicators and calculations are given taking into account inflation rates, the authors of the report note.
At the same time, due to the cessation of military aid from the US, the total amount of military support provided to Ukraine was 13 percent lower than the average level of the previous three years. As for the total amount of financial and humanitarian aid, the decrease was about 5 percent, which analysts considered relatively insignificant.
In 2025, aid to Ukraine became centralized
One of the key changes recorded in 2025 was the centralization of financial support at the EU level. Thus, while in 2022 about half of the financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine was allocated through EU mechanisms, in 2025 this figure reached almost 90 percent, or €35.1 billion in converted terms.
In addition, at the end of 2025, the countries of the community agreed on a new loan for Ukraine in the amount of €90 billion. According to UST project manager Christoph Trebesch, this reflects a general trend, namely that Ukraine’s ever-increasing financial needs are most often covered by loans and grants at the EU level.
Analysts note that this model contributes to a more equitable distribution of the financial burden among EU countries. In contrast, military aid remains predominantly bilateral, leading to an uneven distribution of obligations.
The main burden falls on the countries of Western and Northern Europe
According to the document, in 2025, a total of 62 percent of all European military aid went to Western European countries, with Germany and the United Kingdom making the largest contributions. Northern European countries became the second largest donor group, with their share increasing from 18% in 2022 to 36% in 2023 and remaining high thereafter.
Meanwhile, the contribution of Eastern and Southern Europe decreased significantly: the share of Eastern European countries fell from 17% in 2022 to just 2% in 2025. As for Southern European countries, their share in the total volume of European military aid to Ukraine decreased from 7% to 3%.
In 2025, Europe not only compensated for the loss of American support, but also structurally changed the model of aid to Ukraine, with an emphasis on centralized financing through EU institutions and the growing role of individual countries in the military sphere, the IfW notes in its analytical report.
