DISINFO: Kyiv will not receive real assistance from Europe
SUMMARY
Europe will be indifferent to what is happening in Ukraine, when the issue of bypass paths for oil and gas is solved. Europe may discuss the Ukrainian problems, but Kyiv will not receive real assistance.
RESPONSE
No evidence given. The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), entered into force on 1 September 2017. The EU is Ukraine's number one trading partner. Exports from Ukraine to the EU and Ukrainian imports from the EU both increased by about 25% in the first four months of 2017 compared to the same period the previous year. The EU has pledged a €12.8 billion support package for the next few years to support the reform process. This includes €3.41 billion in loans as EU macro-financial assistance (MFA), of which €2.81 billion has already been provided. This is the largest amount of macro-financial assistance that the EU has disbursed to any non-EU country. On 24 November 2016, in Brussels, the European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union, Maroš Šefčovič and the Energy Minister of Ukraine, Ihor Nasalyk, signed a new Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Energy Partnership between the EU and Ukraine. The new Memorandum of Understanding aims to stimulate energy cooperation between the EU and Ukraine. The European Commission, in close cooperation with the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank, continues to support the modernisation of the Ukrainian gas transportation system, in line with the Joint Declaration made in March 2009. eeas.europa.eu/sites/eeas/files/eu-ukraine_relations_factsheet.pdf,