The European Union remains committed to its support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against the country and its illegal attempts to annex Ukrainian territory. The EU is helping Ukraine resist this aggression, supporting its financing needs and playing a major role in its recovery, reconstruction and modernisation to help achieve a green, digital and inclusive economy. It is also engaged in supporting Ukraine’s reforms on its path towards EU membership and aligning Ukraine’s economy more closely with the Single Market. In 2024, the EU continued its political, financial, humanitarian and military support for Ukraine. It will continue to push for a just and long-lasting peace in line with international law – including the principles of the UN Charter – that preserves Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

Financial assistance

The EU has been determined in its support for Ukraine since the start of Russia’s war of aggression. By adopting exceptional macrofinancial assistance packages to stabilise Ukraine’s economy, leveraging the European Peace Facility for military and defence support and providing dedicated military training missions, the EU has acted swiftly to deliver the emergency financial and military support Ukraine needs.

In 2024, the EU built on this support, setting out to ensure that it could provide more comprehensive, long-term assistance to Ukraine. The country currently faces the dual challenge of rebuilding its economy and infrastructure while also implementing reforms as it starts on its path towards joining the EU (see Chapter 8). Given the complexity of both the reconstruction and the reforms required for EU accession, there was a clear need for sustained and structured EU support. To address this, the EU created the Ukraine Facility, to provide up to €50 billion in stable and predictable financial support to Ukraine between 2024 and 2027.

The Ukraine Facility demonstrates the EU’s commitment to bolstering Ukraine’s resilience, fostering its recovery and facilitating its path towards sustainable development and EU membership. Under the facility, €16.5 billion was paid out in 2024 to Ukraine’s state budget to help finance public wages, pensions and essential public services, while an additional €19.6 billion was mobilised across the three pillars of the facility.

The Ukraine Facility

In addition to the financial assistance provided by the Ukraine Facility, a package of measures was adopted in October to implement the commitments made at the G7 Summit in Fasano, Apulia, Italy, by the EU and G7 partners to provide an additional €45 billion in loans to Ukraine. Out of the total of €45 billion, and following the contributions of other G7 partners, the EU confirmed that it will issue a macrofinancial assistance loan of €18.1 billion as its contribution. These loans are to be repaid by the extraordinary revenues generated from immobilised Russian central bank assets.

By the end of 2024, the EU and its Member States had provided economic, humanitarian and military support worth over €130 billion to Ukraine and Ukrainians since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Military support

In addition to providing Ukraine with military equipment, the EU and its Member States are also supporting the country by providing military training. The EU Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine is aimed at strengthening the capacity of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The mission works closely together with like-minded international partners to provide training support to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. All mission activities take place on EU soil. So far, 24 Member States have offered training modules and personnel, training more than 65 000 Ukrainian soldiers.

In 2024, the EU also took steps to cooperate with Ukraine on defence. The EU–Ukraine Defence Industries Forum, one of the first outcomes of the new European Defence Industrial Strategy, was organised in May. In addition, the EU Defence Innovation Office in Kyiv, Ukraine, started its activities in September. The aim is to promote cross-border cooperation between the defence industries in the EU and Ukraine and bring them closer together.

Humanitarian assistance and civil protection aid for Ukraine

EU humanitarian funding supports people in Ukraine by providing cash assistance, civil protection aid, healthcare, emergency and winter-proof shelter, medical supplies, food, water, demining equipment and training, and education.

These funds include an additional €100 million in humanitarian assistance that has been made available for Ukraine since July. The majority is aimed at helping those who are most vulnerable with preparations for winter.

Experts estimate that attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in 2024 resulted in the loss of about 9 gigawatts of energy production capacity – half of what Ukraine needs to get through the winter. To keep the lights on, the EU has made around €100 million available to repair energy infrastructure and export over 2 gigawatts of electricity to Ukraine. This sum will be covered by the extraordinary revenues generated from immobilised Russian central bank assets in the EU. (For more information on the EU’s contribution to Ukraine’s energy security, see the section ‘The reconstruction of Ukraine’ below.)

Ukrainian patients treated across Europe

Protecting and supporting those fleeing the war in Ukraine

More than 4 million people fleeing the war in Ukraine have been granted temporary protection status in the EU. In June, the EU extended this protection, which grants residency, healthcare, education and work-related rights across the Member States, until March 2026.

National authorities across the EU have also made an enormous effort to support the inclusion of displaced learners across all levels and sectors of education and training. Children from Ukraine are required to attend local schools in over half of the Member States, and more are preparing to introduce compulsory schooling for them in the future. An estimated 700 000 displaced children from Ukraine were enrolled across the EU for the 2023–2024 school year, from early childhood education and care to upper secondary education.

The Erasmus+ programme is also supporting Member States in integrating displaced Ukrainian students and staff. Ukraine continues to benefit from the international dimension of Erasmus+, with capacity building for youth and for sport projects opened to the country for the first time in 2024. In June, the European Commission also published a report titled The inclusion of displaced children from Ukraine in EU education systems.

Following the announcement of the 2024 Erasmus+ European Universities call for proposals on how to form or expand university alliances, approximately 35 Ukrainian universities joined European Universities alliances as associated partners. This initiative allows students and staff members to study and work in various European countries. Moreover, the European Solidarity Corps has supported individuals displaced by the war in Ukraine through volunteer projects.

An additional €10 million has been allocated to support displaced researchers from Ukraine through MSCA4Ukraine under Horizon Europe, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. This will enable at least 50 additional researchers to continue their work on research projects safely at universities, companies, research centres and other institutions based in the EU and countries associated with Horizon Europe. This amount is in addition to the €25 million already dedicated to supporting 125 researchers displaced by the war under the MSCA4Ukraine fellowship scheme.

The EU is also working to make sure Ukrainians integrate easily into its Member States. Thanks to the EU’s Technical Support Instrument, for example, towns and cities in Poland, Romania and Slovakia are building a longer-term strategy to support Ukrainian refugee families. This will enable families to benefit from sustainable and uninterrupted access to essential services such as education and employment opportunities.

In addition to fostering integration, the EU recognises the importance of equipping Ukrainians with the knowledge needed to understand and exercise their rights as EU residents with temporary protection status. In 2024, the EU launched a dedicated campaign to inform displaced Ukrainians in six Member States about EU consumer rights. This helps to ensure they have equal access to fair treatment, protection and transparency in their daily consumer transactions. The second main objective of the campaign was to empower displaced Ukrainians to seek help and claim their rights by directing them to the appropriate consumer organisation in the Member State they live in.

Lastly, the EU aims to safeguard, develop and promote European cultural and linguistic diversity and heritage, and realises the importance of cultural expression in creating a sense of community and mutual understanding. In December, Ukraine joined the Media strand of the Creative Europe programme, allowing Ukrainian film and audiovisual creators to apply to access funding for their work.

The EU continued its close cooperation with Ukraine and Moldova to help improve transport routes through the Solidarity Lanes initiative. Initially established to bypass Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, which were the main gateway for the country’s grain exports, today the Solidarity Lanes cover trade across all sectors. They allow Ukraine and Moldova to export all types of goods to world markets while also ensuring that crucial imports reach Ukraine. In the long term, they will play a pivotal role in Ukraine’s reconstruction and further integration into the EU’s Single Market.

As part of the Solidarity Lanes, the EU is also financing equipment to support border and customs authorities. In June, a new EU-funded mobile cargo scanner was delivered to the border crossing in Chop, Ukraine, on the frontier with Hungary, to speed up checks and reduce waiting times for lorry drivers and logistics companies.

In addition to the Solidarity Lanes, the Trans-European Transport Network, a key EU initiative designed to enhance transport infrastructure and connectivity across Member States, has been expanded to include Ukraine and Moldova. This has also given entities from both countries access to the Connecting Europe Facility, the EU’s primary funding mechanism for infrastructure development.

The EU has continued to support Ukraine through the extension of favourable trade agreements, transport agreements and roaming agreements.

During the year, the EU once again extended trade support measures suspending import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports, this time until 5 June 2025.

However, considering the significant increase in imports of some agricultural products from Ukraine into the EU in 2022 and 2023, the renewed support measures contain a reinforced safeguard mechanism. This allows for quick remedial action in the case of significant disruptions to the EU market or the markets of one or more Member States.

To help Ukraine export its goods to EU and world markets, the EU and Ukraine extended and updated their road transport agreement in June. The agreement has substantially facilitated trade by road between the EU and Ukraine, benefiting both economies since the start of the war. A similar agreement in place between the EU and Moldova has also been extended.

To strengthen cooperation in the field of transport, the EU–Moldova High-Level Dialogue on Transport was launched. This will help to strengthen connections between all modes of transport and to make joint progress on the sustainable and digital transformation.

The EU recognises that Ukraine’s economic recovery also requires robust support for the country’s reconstruction. The EU aims to coordinate resources effectively by bringing together Ukraine, the EU, G7 countries and other partners. The objective is to ensure assistance to Ukraine is planned and delivered efficiently, in a coherent, transparent and inclusive way, while avoiding duplication of effort.

According to the World Bank’s report Ukraine – Rapid damage and needs assessment, released in February 2024, Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery will cost $486 billion over the next decade. The most pressing needs are in housing, transport, commerce and industry, agriculture, energy, social protection and the protection of livelihoods.

Despite the challenging circumstances, the Ukrainian economy recorded 5 % growth in 2023. According to baseline forecasts, growth in the coming years is expected to be above 4 %. However, even in the baseline scenario of the war starting to wind down at the end of 2024, Ukraine’s real gross domestic product would only reach its pre-war level in 2030.

To help Ukraine rebuild, the EU launched the new Ukraine Investment Framework in April, under the Ukraine Facility. This will unlock €9.3 billion in investment instruments (€7.8 billion in loan guarantees and €1.51 billion in blended finance grants) that could mobilise up to €40 billion in additional financing from European financial institutions and the private sector. The first €1.4 billion worth of grants and guarantee agreements under the framework were signed in June at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, Germany. These have the potential to unlock €6 billion in investment for critical reconstruction and modernisation projects, particularly in areas such as energy and municipal infrastructure. The conference also launched the Business Advisory Council, which will support the Ukraine Donor Platform by providing business insights to improve the country’s investment climate and attract private-sector investment.

Additionally, in November, at the EU–Ukraine Investment Conference in Warsaw, Poland, a call for expressions of interest was launched, targeting EU-based private companies interested in investing in Ukraine. The conference attracted more than 5 500 participants from 32 countries, including representatives from companies and banks.

In order to support a greener and socially inclusive rebuilding of Ukraine, the EU and the International Finance Corporation signed a €90 million guarantee agreement to support inclusive and sustainable reconstruction in Ukraine. The programme aims to mobilise over €500 million in private-sector investment in critical infrastructure, the production of goods, decarbonisation and livelihood preservation.

Related to this, the inaugural EU–Ukraine Business Summit on 18 April brought together more than 400 private-sector participants to discuss key sectors of the Ukrainian economy, aiming to foster a greener development.

In response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the resulting energy-price crisis, the Commission adopted targeted State-aid instruments, namely the Temporary Crisis Framework and its successor, the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework. These have played a significant role in mitigating the impact of high energy costs and supporting the green transition in Member States. In May, the Commission extended certain provisions of the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework for an additional six months, until the end of 2024, to address persisting market disturbances specifically in the agriculture and fisheries sectors.

The EU continued to impose heavy sanctions on Russia during the year, with the aim of limiting its ability to finance its war of aggression against Ukraine. Since February 2022, the EU has imposed a total of 15 packages of restrictive measures against Russia. As well as targeting specific individuals and entities, EU sanctions also target the financial, energy, transport, technology and defence sectors.

The 13th package of sanctions, adopted in February 2024, focused on further limiting Russia’s access to military technologies such as drones and on listing additional companies and individuals involved in Russia’s war effort. The 14th package of restrictive measures, adopted in June, tackled enforcement issues and efforts by Russia to circumvent EU sanctions. It contained important new energy-related measures targeting liquefied natural gas. For the first time, the EU adopted a measure targeting specific vessels that facilitate Russia’s warfare against Ukraine, which are subject to a port-access ban and a ban on the provision of services.

The 14th package also significantly strengthened financial sanctions by introducing a ban on EU banks outside Russia using the System for Transfer of Financial Messages, the Russian equivalent of the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) network. The package additionally introduced a ban on transactions with banks and crypto-asset providers that facilitate transactions supporting Russia’s defence–industrial base. To further limit Russia’s ability to access restricted goods and technology, several measures were introduced to boost private-sector compliance, support enforcement by national competent authorities and hamper the circumvention of sanctions, including by keeping in check the foreign subsidiaries of EU operators.

The 15th package of sanctions, adopted in December, focused on tackling Russia’s shadow fleet, sanctions circumvention and the Russian military–industrial complex. For the first time, the EU imposed full sanctions – including travel bans, asset freezes and economic resource prohibitions – on several Chinese entities. In addition, the package targeted Russian military-equipment manufacturers, shipping companies and entities aiding sanctions evasion, and introduced amendments to address the increasing litigation and retaliatory measures in Russia against EU central securities depositories. The package also included 84 additional listings – 54 individuals and 30 entities – bringing the total number of listings to over 2 300. This means that the EU-based assets of these listed individuals and entities were made subject to asset freezes, and – in the case of individuals – travel bans were imposed.

The EU also adopted sanctions against Belarus in response to its role in Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine. These comprehensive measures reflect several of the restrictions already imposed on Russia, addressing circumvention risks due to the close integration of the Russian and Belarusian economies.

The EU is working hard to make sure that the sanctions are effectively implemented. The Technical Support Instrument, which provides tailor-made expertise to Member States, continued to support Member States by helping them map the powers and organisations relevant to asset freezing. Within the framework of the Freeze and Seize Task Force, Member States continued to exchange best practices among themselves and with international partners on how to enhance the implementation of EU sanctions. In May, a directive harmonising the definitions of criminal offences and penalties for the violation of EU sanctions entered into force. This will further strengthen the effectiveness of EU sanctions. Lastly, throughout 2024, David O’Sullivan, the Special Envoy for the Implementation of EU Sanctions, continued to engage with non-EU countries to ensure that the effectiveness of EU sanctions is not undermined by circumvention practices.

Following EU sanctions, the assets in the EU of the Russian central bank, worth more than €210 billion, have been immobilised. The extraordinary revenues generated by the management of these assets amount to approximately €2.5–3 billion per year. In May, the EU adopted legal acts enabling the use of these net profits for the benefit of Ukraine, with the first payment of €1.5 billion made available in July and the second payment scheduled for spring 2025.

In the context of its unjustified, illegal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia’s actions have continuously violated international law, with numerous reports of incidents amounting to international crimes. Seventeen Member States have launched investigations into the international crimes committed in Ukraine. The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) plays a crucial role in supporting the joint investigation team on international crimes committed in Ukraine, which consists of Ukraine and six Member States, with the International Criminal Court and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation as participants. The investigations are supported by Eurojust’s specialised database, the Core International Crimes Evidence Database, which was set up to preserve, store and analyse evidence relating to international crimes.

Since 2023, Eurojust has been hosting the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. The centre was set up to support the work of preparing any future prosecutions of the crime of aggression, irrespective of the jurisdiction before which these will be brought. Prosecutors from the joint investigation team, including Ukraine and a prosecutor from the United States, work together on-site, and this enables them to exchange evidence quickly and agree on a common way forward in their investigations. The International Criminal Court has been actively involved.

Additionally, since 2023, the EU, the Council of Europe and approximately 40 countries, collectively known as the Core Group, have been actively engaged in discussions on establishing a special tribunal for the prosecution of the crime of aggression against Ukraine. On 22 November 2024, the Core Group reaffirmed its commitment to this effort by publishing the Vienna–Riga Statement. This statement outlines the establishment of the special tribunal within the framework of the Council of Europe, based on a bilateral agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe.

Russia must also be held liable to pay for the damage it has caused, and continues to cause, to Ukraine and its population. In May 2023, 43 countries and the EU established the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine within the Council of Europe to record claims for damage, loss and injury caused by the Russian invasion. The register opened for the submission of the first category of claims at the Restoring Justice for Ukraine conference held in The Hague, Netherlands, on 2 April 2024. As of October, more than 10 000 claims were recorded in the register. On 13 December, the Register of Damage announced its first decisions on recording claims, which concerned 832 claims for damage or destruction of residential property. Moreover, in 2024, more than 50 countries, along with the EU and the Council of Europe, took part in three preparatory meetings to establish a Claims Commission. These meetings marked an important step towards creating a comprehensive compensation mechanism, with the aim of reviewing and determining claims recorded in the register.

The EU firmly supports Ukraine in obtaining a peace that is comprehensive, just and lasting, in line with international law and the principles of the UN Charter. At the Summit on Peace in Ukraine, held in Switzerland on 15 and 16 June, the EU pledged to uphold these principles and support a peace that will restore Ukraine’s sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity.

Not only will the EU support Ukraine in obtaining a just peace on its own terms, it will also continue to rally international support for Ukraine. On 27 June, the EU and Ukraine signed the ‘Joint security commitments between the European Union and Ukraine’. By signing this agreement, the EU and its Member States committed to providing Ukraine and its people with all the necessary political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support it needs for 10 years. This includes helping Ukraine to build international support, especially from key developing countries and emerging economies.

The EU – along with several countries – also signed the Ukraine Compact at the 33rd NATO Summit in July. This document highlights how important the security of Ukraine is to the security of the entire Euro-Atlantic region, and how Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine is a threat to international peace and security. Signatories affirmed that they intended to support Ukraine until it prevails against Russia’s aggression.