This was reported by TSN, citing Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (F.A.Z.).
According to the publication’s sources, the Ukrainian leadership, headed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, received a signal from the European Commission that funding from the European Ukraine Facility could be completely suspended if pressure on key anti-corruption institutions continues.
A well-informed source in Kyiv stated that the Ukrainian government received the corresponding letter.
Overall, the Ukraine Facility program provides for the allocation of up to 50 billion euros to Ukraine until 2027. Most of these funds go directly into the state budget.
Opposition MP and former Minister for European Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze confirmed that the EU did indeed send the corresponding message.
According to her, it stated that “financial assistance under the EU Facility will be frozen if the situation with anti-corruption bodies is not corrected”. Moreover, this concerns the freezing of all subsequent financial tranches, not just part of the planned ones.
F.A.Z. noted that experts from the European Commission prepared a detailed report with an in-depth analysis of events surrounding NABU and SAP, which was sent to the embassies of EU countries in Kyiv and to the Commission itself. The document describes the searches and arrests at NABU as “the most blatant attempt to interfere in the functioning of Ukraine’s anti-corruption system since its creation”.