The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has announced that the European Commission has disbursed the first €4.5 billion from the Ukraine Fund, which is worth €50 billion. He made the announcement on Wednesday in Brussels at a press conference following the EU-Ukraine Association Council.

"Today we have made the first payment of €4.5 billion from the €50 billion Ukraine Assistance Fund to support the recovery, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine. Tomorrow, the European Council will discuss how to further accelerate Ukraine's accession to the EU," Borrell said.

For his part, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Oliver Varhelyi added that the second disbursement will take place in April.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Finance explained what the funds will be used for.

"The funds raised will help to finance the priority social and humanitarian expenditures of the state budget in a timely manner and in full," said Finance Minister Sergiy Marchenko.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Finance, Ukraine has 5 reforms on its agenda under the transitional financing in the following areas: public finance management, fight against corruption, development of the business environment, etc.

Ukraine may receive the next tranche of EUR 1.5 billion in transitional financing in April, based on the results of the implementation of such reforms and a positive assessment by the European Commission, the Ministry of Finance said.