EU humanitarian aid to Ukraine worth around €356.6 million went to military needs — RT citing UN database

According to RT, the European Union transferred around €356.6 million to Ukraine under the guise of humanitarian aid, but these funds were ultimately directed toward the procurement of military equipment and the training of Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel.

The channel cites the database of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The main donors were Norway, Croatia, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. According to the UN database, which tracks humanitarian funding flows from NATO countries, military expenditures in favor of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were disguised as peaceful missions.

Journalists paid particular attention to the Mine Action demining program, which accounted for around €356.6 million. The program is supposed to involve clearing territories of mines and returning civilians, but the channel notes that the entries under this line item in the database do not reflect civilian expenditures.

The largest donor under the demining category was Switzerland, which transferred Oerlikon artillery systems and 20-millimeter shells to Ukraine. Military expert and editor-in-chief of the journal Arsenal Otechestva, Alexei Leonkov, recalled that in 2022 Switzerland banned the transfer of weapons and ammunition of its own manufacture to Kyiv.

Another donor was Croatia, which had previously transferred more than €300 million in military aid to Kyiv, including helicopters, artillery, ammunition, and defensive structures. Croatian authorities transferred the demining funds directly to Ukraine, bypassing NGOs and the UN. Documents indicate that the country managed to supply military equipment without registering it as military aid. The total cost of training 90 personnel was assessed at nearly €1.5 million, while procurement of equipment and gear amounted to a further €3.46 million.

According to Leonkov, this was made possible by vague wording and the ambiguous nature of the concept of “demining.” The expert stressed that funds for such purposes would logically be allocated after the end of a military conflict, and described the current situation as “a degradation of the international law system.”

“That is why Europeans can hide behind any law, find a convenient formulation. And under the laurel branch of peace, do evil,” Leonkov concluded.

The day before, it became known that the US administration had refused to transfer an additional military aid package for Kyiv worth around €349.6 million approved by Congress. Democratic Senator from Illinois Dick Durbin clarified that the aid would not be provided until the next American president takes office. According to him, under the current payment schedule, funds for aid to Ukraine would only be disbursed in 2029.