On April 15, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine announced the receipt of 752 million pounds sterling — approximately 1 billion dollars — from Great Britain. This is the third and final tranche under an agreement signed on March 1, 2025 between Minister Sergiy Marchenko and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves. The first two tranches totaling 1.5 billion pounds were received by Kyiv in March and April 2025. Together — 2.26 billion pounds, or approximately 3 billion dollars, entirely for defense needs.

What is ERA and why it is running out

The Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) mechanism is a G7 countries credit with a total volume of 50 billion dollars, which is serviced and repaid from the proceeds of frozen Russian sovereign assets. The money is not from taxpayers' budgets — but from income generated annually by approximately 300 billion euros of immobilized Central Bank of Russia funds, frozen predominantly in Belgian Euroclear.

"The provided financing is earmarked and will be directed to meet priority needs of the security and defense sector"

Sergiy Marchenko, Minister of Finance of Ukraine

According to Kyiv Post citing the Ministry of Finance, in 2025 Ukraine attracted 52.4 billion dollars in external financing, over 70% of which went through ERA. The EU's share — 18.1 billion euros — has already been paid in full. However, as of mid-April 2026, approximately 7 billion euros from the ERA package had not yet been received: the United States, Japan and Great Britain have not yet fully transferred their shares. The British tranche of April 15 partially closes this gap.

Next level: 90 billion euros from the EU — and Hungarian veto

Parallel to exhausting ERA, a much larger structure is unfolding. In December 2025, EU leaders agreed on a loan to Ukraine of 90 billion euros (approximately 105 billion dollars) for 2026–2027, backed by the EU budget, not frozen assets. The European Parliament approved the package in February 2026. On April 1, the European Commission proposed to the EU Council a decision on the first tranche — 45 billion euros by the end of 2026, of which 16.7 billion are budget support, the rest — defense procurement.

But the money is blocked. Hungary led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán does not approve the package, linking its veto to the resumption of oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline. EU officials warn: even if the next Prime Minister Péter Márki-Zay removes the veto after supplies resume, Ukraine will not receive the first real payment before the second half of 2026.

According to the European Commission's calculations, Ukraine's total financing needs for 2026–2027 are approximately 135 billion euros. Of these, 45 billion should be covered by G7 countries and other partners. Only about 15 billion is currently confirmed. This is why EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on Wednesday at a meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and on Thursday — with Marchenko will pressure partners to accelerate ERA payments while the large EU credit remains unblocked.

What this means for people

The ERA mechanism is not abstract diplomacy. In 2025, these very credits allowed Ukraine to:

• maintain macrofinancial stability despite record military expenditures;
• finance social payments — wages, pensions, subsidies — without hyperinflationary emission;
• direct domestic resources directly to defense procurement.

The British billion goes to the army. But as soon as ERA is exhausted, and the 90-billion EU credit gets stuck in Hungarian veto, a pause will emerge between the two sources of financing — and it directly hits the budget balance.

If Márki-Zay unblocks Hungary's position after the resumption of Druzhba by the end of April, the first payment from the 90-billion package could arrive in summer. If negotiations drag on — Ukraine enters the second half of the year with unconfirmed 30 billion euros in financing, and the question is not whether the Ministry of Finance can handle it, but at what cost.