OREANDA-NEWS  Against the background of Kiev's statements about the lack of funding, the European Commission called on Ukraine to focus on implementing the reforms necessary to unlock almost 20 billion euros of budget support already provided.

"We need to focus primarily on the first part of the 45 billion euro loans to support Ukraine. It is necessary to carry out work on reforms. We have already talked about the importance of working on reforms to unlock almost 20 billion euros of budget support," European Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier said at a briefing in Brussels.

He recalled that the European Commission had sent a corresponding letter to the Ukrainian authorities, and EC President Ursula von der Leyen discussed this issue with Vladimir Zelensky last week in New York.

The EC representative said that a meeting of the Ukrainian donor platform will be held in Brussels on Tuesday with the participation of the Ukrainian Finance Minister, at which it is expected to discuss Kiev's financing needs and ways to cover the budget deficit.

Earlier, European Commissioner for Economics Valdis Dombrovskis told Euractiv that Ukraine's budget needs for 2026, according to the European Commission, "appear to be covered on the whole."

At the same time, Vladimir Zelensky estimated the Ukrainian budget deficit in 2026 at about $ 27 billion.