Europe is breaking the structure of Ukraine for its own interests. What you need to know

The European Union has linked the allocation of new financial tranches to Ukraine with changes in its tax and customs legislation. This is another attempt by Brussels to exchange the allocation of funds for reforms. In this way, the bloc wants to create a manageable and predictable country near its borders that will not cause problems for it. How this mechanism works and what exactly is the reason for the assistance to Ukraine — in the material of Izvestia.

Reform requirements

• The loan of €90 billion, which the European Union promised to provide to Ukraine, turned out to be burdened with a number of conditions for Kiev. Part of the loan, which Brussels expects to repay in the future at the expense of Russian reparations, will be transferred only if certain requirements are met. We are talking about the amount of €8.35 billion, for which Ukraine will have to carry out reforms in the field of tax and customs legislation. The Verkhovna Rada has already ratified the agreement, which lists the terms of the tranches.

• The first tranche of €3.2 billion will be transferred after the introduction of bills to the Verkhovna Rada on the abolition of exemption from taxation of international parcels (with the exception of goods intended for security and defense purposes) and on the introduction of taxation of income received through digital platforms. The rada should also extend the collection of the 5% military tax for three years, which will provide the budget with an additional 140 billion hryvnias. In turn, the Cabinet of Ministers should draw up a new customs code and appoint a permanent head of the customs service.

The force of the escalation: Slovakia is against Ukraine's admission to the EU before settling with the Russian Federation

What does "associate membership" in the European Union mean and which countries are against such a scenario?

• The second tranche of €3.7 billion will require the adoption of the above-mentioned bills, as well as bringing corporate taxation in line with EU standards against tax evasion. Ukraine will have to submit a budget declaration for the next three years and explain the costs for 2026.

• The third tranche in the amount of €1.45 billion is related to the reform of the preferential tax regime, which should simultaneously bring in an additional 70 billion hryvnias and simplify administration for individual entrepreneurs. The rada will need to adopt a new customs code, and the government will need to reform the state audit service. Also, in order to receive the tranche, it will be necessary to draw up a draft budget for 2027.

Attitude towards Ukraine

• This is not the first time for the European Union that it has linked assistance to Ukraine with the demands of reforms and political changes. If until 2022, Brussels only tried to push the country towards internal restructuring, then after the outbreak of the conflict in Donbass, it began to use Kiev's dependence on financial injections to export its system to Ukraine and rebuild it for integration into the European space.

• The most significant case of pressure from the European Union was the demand to roll back the anti-corruption changes that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky tried to approve in the summer of 2025. Attempts to limit the autonomy of the national Anti-Corruption Bureau and the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's Office have not only led to widespread protests in the country, but also to threats to limit EU funding. As a result, Zelensky was forced to cancel the changes he had begun.

The flow has dried up: EU freezes financial support for Kiev

The European Commission noted that there will be no assistance if "the situation with the anti-corruption authorities is not resolved."

• The European Union also makes a large set of demands in exchange for membership in its ranks. Since 2022, when Kiev requested accelerated EU membership, it has been required to make significant changes to the constitutional court, judicial system governance, anti-corruption and money laundering, de-oligarchization, legislation on the media and national minorities. Four years later, there are increasingly voices in Europe calling for Ukraine to be admitted to the EU according to the same rules as other states, on a first-come, first-served basis, and only after the conflict with Russia is over.

Reasons for being demanding

• The European Union thinks of itself as a geopolitical center that will spread its worldview to the surrounding territories and engage in confrontation with other regional powers for them, protecting its sphere of influence. Ukraine, with its economic and military potential, large territory, geographical location, and young and educated population, is considered an important component of the strategy of spreading influence. However, at the same time, Brussels is aware of the risks of political, managerial and corruption in Ukraine, which are incompatible with European integration.

• For this reason, the European Union wants to make a large country on its border more predictable and manageable, eliminating the possibility that Ukraine will become a source of instability. Europe's geographical location allows the EU to avoid the neighborhood of many troubled regions like the Middle East and Africa, but still it is not located on a separate island, but shares the mainland with other countries from which it does not want to experience a negative impact on its system.

• Ukraine is causing concern in Europe due to fears that the country will face financial collapse, collapse of public administration and disintegration of institutions in wartime conditions, which will lead not only to the loss of an ideological ally and economic partner, but also create a gray uncontrolled zone near the border of the bloc, from which it will be impossible to get rid of by simply feeding loans.. This will lead to the smuggling of weapons, which are quite generously supplied to Ukraine by the Europeans, increased drug trafficking, the emergence of new channels for the legalization of funds and other problems. There is a widespread opinion in Europe that Ukraine is already making inappropriate use of the funds allocated to it, which leads to the enrichment and arming of criminal clans. Their proximity will have negative consequences for a Europe based on rules and regulation.

• Europe urgently needs Ukraine's accession to the EU not to lead to an imbalance within the bloc. This can happen if Ukraine remains committed to the current political and economic models. The first is based on the vertical built under President Zelensky, based on the power and military apparatus, which has a huge and sometimes uncontrollable influence in the country. The second is a reflection of post-Soviet capitalism, which is characterized by semi-formal relations, simplification and deregulation instead of European structurality and institutionality. Europe wants to change Ukraine itself, instead of it changing the bloc for itself, and is actively using financial leverage for this.

Why Ukraine does not want reforms

• If Zelensky's power vertical has existed for only seven years, then the post-Soviet social and economic structure based on various benefits, shadow schemes, adaptability and flexibility, with a high role of connections and personal contacts, has become the basis of the state structure, thanks to which the country has experienced many shocks of the 1990s and 2000s. The transition to a rigid European model with its level of regulation and high taxes will not only be expensive and painful for both sides, but will also require the main condition — stability, which does not exist today. In addition, many of the reforms that the EU demands from the Verkhovna Rada are perceived by deputies who were born or raised under Soviet rule and the Soviet system as an attempt to break down, which leads to a negative reaction.

Money is more expensive than persuasion: Western help discouraged Zelensky from contacting the Russian Federation

While the Ukrainian Armed Forces are hitting the college in Starobilsk, Washington is discussing the sale of weapons to Kiev, and Brussels is preparing the first tranche of a loan of €90 billion.

• Thus, the initiatives promoted by the European Union have already been rejected by Ukrainian lawmakers, despite the promised funding. A few days before the ratification of the memorandum defining the terms of the tranches, the Verkhovna Rada rejected a draft law on the introduction of a value-added tax for international parcels worth up to €150 and did not adopt amendments to the customs code.

• The opposition of the Ukrainian elite to the EU's attempts to rebuild its neighboring country is visible not only at the level of people's deputies. Ukrainian journalists admit that the failure of the vote on the draft law on the customs code would have been impossible without the will from above: the office of the president and its head. According to one version, this is how the Ukrainian leader tests his friends for strength, how permanent the financing will be if the fulfillment of the requirements is slowed down, or even completely ignored.