Zelensky in the Netherlands: a new €500 million military package against Russian air attacks and €1.2 billion for energy and reconstruction

Volodymyr Zelensky left the Netherlands with a new €500 million military package, after visiting on Wednesday, October 28. Following his meeting with Prime Minister Rob Jetten, the Ukrainian president wrote on X that the package is “being prepared at this moment”, within the autumn, and is of particular importance for repelling Russian air attacks.

Alongside the military aid, the Dutch government has already committed €1.2 billion in non-military support over the next three years. Zelensky thanked the Netherlands for this package too, noting that the money will go to energy, infrastructure recovery, the social sector and health.

The programme of the visit, as the Dutch government announced it, provided for Jetten to receive him at the Catshuis, a bilateral meeting and talks between delegations, in which Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius and Foreign Minister Berendsen would take part, followed by a meeting with chief executives of Dutch and Ukrainian companies. On Wednesday evening King Willem-Alexander was to receive Zelensky in audience at Huis ten Bosch in The Hague.

On arriving, the Ukrainian president had announced in advance that defence and economic cooperation, strengthening Ukraine’s air defence and “new steps” of support would be on the table. With Jetten they discussed the course of the diplomatic process in depth. “A lot is happening right now,” Zelensky wrote, saying the two leaders examined, ahead of the trilateral meeting planned in Abu Dhabi, what can be done together with the European partners so that the position of all of us in Europe is really taken into account. We covered the expected meeting in Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi.

What the €1.2 billion contains

The detailed content of the €1.2 billion package was presented the same day in Kyiv by the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, who travelled together with the president of the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW), Koen van Oostrom. The main elements:

• Energy: €40 million in 2026 to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund for urgent repairs of the energy system and €55 million for the delivery of energy equipment by Dutch companies, through the state agency RVO.
• Business and reconstruction: €136 million, among other things for the Ukraine Partnership Facility, and an extra €19.5 million for export credit insurance, on top of the existing €60 million facility.
• Industry: €10 million for Zelensky’s “Industrial Ramstein” initiative, with a declaration of intent signed with Ukraine’s Minister of Economy and Environment, Oleksandr Kravchenko.

Support is also included for housing, humanitarian aid, health, psychosocial support, demining, democracy and the rule of law, and the restoration of cultural heritage, while through the UN Development Programme (UNDP) the effort to locate and return abducted Ukrainian children continues. The Hague is thus specifying sums it had already promised: €878 million from the coalition government agreement and €327 million announced with the budget. A large part is channelled through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank.

“Support for recovery and reconstruction cannot wait for a ceasefire,” Sjoerdsma said. Elsewhere in his statement he added: “However successful you are on the battlefield, it is equally essential that energy systems, hospitals and food production keep working.” For his part, Zelensky wrote in his post that they are working so that all political agreements are followed by tangible economic results, with economic growth and jobs in both Ukraine and the Netherlands.