European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned on Wednesday, following a bloody attack in the Kyiv region, the “horrific atrocities” committed by Russia and announced the transfer of an additional 1.4 billion euros to support Ukraine’s war effort, AFP reports.

“Russia must pay for the destruction it has caused,” warned the European Commission president, who announced on the X platform that the EU received on Monday the final tranche of windfall profits generated by Russian assets frozen within the bloc and that it would make these funds available to Kyiv.

"This will further support Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s illegal war," she added.

The European Union has frozen approximately 200 billion euros of Russia’s international reserves as part of sanctions aimed at disrupting the Russian war machine. Most of these assets are held by Euroclear, a financial institution based in Brussels.

Four previous tranches of these windfall profits have already been transferred to Kyiv, the most recent in March of this year, bringing the total amount of funds transferred to 8 billion euros.

A more ambitious plan to use these assets to finance a massive loan for Ukraine was abandoned last year, with EU countries preferring to grant a 90-billion-euro loan, guaranteed by the Union’s common budget, to ensure funding for Kyiv through 2027.

In recent months, Ukraine appears to have turned the tide in this four-year war, stabilizing the front lines and launching deep strikes into Russian territory.

However, Moscow has also significantly intensified its attacks on the Ukrainian capital, generally launching ballistic missiles that are difficult to intercept.

Kyiv has warned that it is facing a critical shortage of air defense capabilities.

At least 17 people were killed and several dozen others were wounded in the most recent Russian missile and drone attack, launched overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday on the Kyiv region.

AGERPRES