The Government’s financial contributions to Ukraine are “well below” the amount of support provided by most other European Union states, including countries with smaller economies than Ireland, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs’ top civil servant.
Internal correspondence between Government departments, seen by The Irish Times, acknowledged the State has extended far less financial aid to Kyiv, since Russia’s full-scale invasion four years ago, when compared with many other European countries.
Joe Hackett, Department of Foreign Affairs secretary general, sought space in the budget for a further €100 million package of “non-lethal” military aid for Kyiv, in an August 28th, 2025 letter to his counterpart, David Moloney, in the Department of Public Expenditure.
The letter said while the Republic’s support to Ukraine was “substantial”, it was “well below the contributions of most EU member states, including many with smaller economies”.
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Ireland needed to continue to “demonstrate solidarity” with Ukraine in the face of sustained Russian aggression, Hackett wrote.
The letter, released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, said a fresh package of aid for Ukraine would complement “the substantial additional support being provided by like-minded EU partners”.
The Government has to date provided €467 million in financial aid and support to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. About half of that was spent on “non-lethal” military aid, such as medical supplies used on the battlefield, body armour and drone jamming devices.
Some €125 million in support was committed during the recent visit of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Dublin at the end of last year.
Nordic and Baltic states, who are among the biggest backers of Ukraine, have started to criticise other EU countries for not pulling their weight to help shore up Kyiv’s position.
Finland, which shares a lengthy border with Russia, has provided €3.2 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion, a spokeswoman for the Finnish government said.
The small Baltic state of Estonia has sent €500 million worth of defence equipment to Ukraine, which equals about 1.4 per cent of its total economic output, figures show.
Ukraine had been at risk of running out of money by the middle of this year, something senior EU officials and military planners feared would quickly lead to a collapse on the battlefield.
Under pressure to urgently fill the shortfall, EU leaders agreed to finance a €90 billion loan, borrowed on the markets as a bloc, to keep Ukraine funded for the next two years.
Sinn Féin voted against a Government motion seeking support for the €90 billion EU loan in the Dáil in recent days.
Finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the money would be better spent elsewhere and criticised the loan as funding “an enormous escalation in military financing” for a war with “no end in sight”.
A separate EU package of €6.6 billion in aid, which the union’s 27 states funded in proportion to their economic size, remains blocked in Brussels.
Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orban has used national veto powers to prevent the EU sending the funds to Kyiv. As a result, many national governments have provided funding directly to Ukraine outside of EU channels.
The Republic’s donations to Ukraine would “likely be considerably higher”, if Orban was not blocking the release of those funds, Hackett said in his August 28th letter.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said Ireland had provided €467 million in support to Ukraine, between non-lethal military aid, humanitarian assistance and recent funding to help address energy shortages.
“This support is in addition to a range of items and training provided through the Department of Defence,” she said.
The Republic has also taken in more than 120,000 Ukrainian refugees, mainly women and children, who fled the war.
