The European Union plans to allow Ukraine to purchase British weapons using a €60 billion loan provided for defense purchases.
Sources told Bloomberg about this.
The EU and the UK government are close to an agreement that will allow British companies to participate in the program after months of negotiations, according to sources familiar with the matter. The agreement is expected to be announced as early as next week at a meeting in Paris on Monday of the “Coalition of the Willing” countries.
Sources say there will be no fixed fee for the UK to access the programme. Instead, the British government will make a financial contribution only when Ukraine decides to use the loan to purchase military equipment from British companies. The amount of the contribution will depend on the value of each contract and the interest costs associated with it.
The deal is seen as a step towards a deal by the EU after the parties previously failed to agree on the UKʼs participation in the €150 billion European defence fund SAFE. The talks reached an impasse over EU demands for a contribution to access the fund. According to British officials, this was obstructed in particular by France.
Negotiations on a loan for Ukraine have been moving much faster. Sources note that the Netherlands, in particular, has been actively pushing for a deal to be concluded as soon as possible. There is also a broad understanding that it will benefit Ukraine by simplifying the purchase of British weapons and promoting deeper integration of the two countriesʼ defense industries.
€90 billion loan from the EU
In December 2025, EU leaders approved a decision to provide Ukraine with a €90 billion loan in 2026-2027. On February 11, the European Parliament supported this decision. Of this amount, €60 billion will go to military assistance, the rest to budget support.
For a long time, Hungary blocked a loan to Ukraine due to the suspension of Russian oil transit through the Druzhba oil pipeline. On April 23, “Druzhba” resumed operation, and on the same day, the Council of the European Union approved this loan and the 20th package of sanctions against Russia.
The money allocated for 2026 will be distributed as follows: €28.3 billion for defense, €16.7 billion for budget support (€8.35 billion under the EUʼs macro-financial assistance mechanism, the same amount through the Ukraine Facility). The loan will be repaid with proceeds from frozen Russian assets in European banks.
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