Estonia puts forward EUR 100B funding plan for Ukraine

The Estonian Defense Ministry has developed a EUR 120 billion aid plan for Ukraine.

That's according to Kusti Salm, Permanent Secretary of the Estonian Defense Ministry, Ukrinform reports, citing Euractiv.

Estonia believes that borrowing from the financial markets or taking from national budgets are the "best ways to give Ukraine what it needs to win the war."

Estonia is now looking for more than EUR 100 billion to achieve that goal.

Salm said that allocating EUR 120 billion a year in military aid to Ukraine "is a ballpark figure for what should be enough for Ukraine to win the war."

Salm suggested that part of that figure could be funded with Eurobonds, where the European Commission could raise funds from the financial markets and use the group of 27 EU member states as a guarantee.

For the past several months, Estonian politicians and officials have repeatedly said what is needed for Ukraine to win the war, is for its Western allies invest 0.25% of their GDP in military aid to the country, based on a strategy drafted by Estonia's Defense Ministry.

If the 50-plus countries in the U.S.-led 'Ramstein' coalition supporting Ukraine militarily spent that percentage, it would amount to "more than EUR 120 billion a year," Salm said, adding that "with this money, by 2025, Ukraine will get to a point where they can impose attrition to Russia."

Even if that amount of money started flowing now into the budgets, its impact would take almost a year, Salm cautioned.

"It will take another [around nine months] to get the supplies to the level needed for Ukraine to credibly get to this attrition level," he said.