Key facts
- The finance ministry letter said the €100 million would supplement Ukraine funding already in the 2026 budget.
- The money would fund decentralized power generation and storage, water and power repairs, firefighting equipment and school repairs.
- The letter said the need was unforeseen because the conflict's intensity was not predictable when the 2026 budget passed.
- Germany set aside €250 million in September for Ukraine through the Ukraine Energy Support Fund.
- The letter said attacks in October caused blackouts in more than a third of Ukraine's regions.
Germany's finance ministry proposed setting aside an extra €100 million ($113 million) to help restore Ukrainian water, energy and transport infrastructure and to strengthen resilience against intensified Russian attacks, according to a letter to the parliamentary budget committee dated November 5.
The funds would supplement the Ukraine funding included in the 2026 budget, the letter said, and would cover damage from a Russian aerial bombardment campaign that has intensified since the summer. In September the government had already set aside €250 million to support Ukraine through the Ukraine Energy Support Fund.
"This need is unforeseen, as at the time the federal budget for 2026 was adopted, the intensity of the conflict could not have been predicted," the letter said. It added that since July 2026 Russia had been carrying out increasingly frequent and intense attacks on critical and civilian infrastructure in big cities, transport routes, logistics centers and companies.
With winter approaching, the letter said 80% of Ukraine's power generation capacity had been destroyed since the Russian invasion in 2022, and that attacks in October created blackouts in more than a third of Ukraine's regions. The money would go to decentralized power generation and storage equipment, repairs to water and power infrastructure, firefighting equipment and school building repairs.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government has been the biggest European contributor to Ukraine, providing billions in military assistance to the government in Kyiv, the letter said.