The European Council on Thursday, May 28, approved nearly €2.8 billion ($3.25 billion) to Ukraine under the seventh disbursement of the Ukraine Facility program after Kyiv completed 11 of 20 reform steps required. The approval came despite persistent reform shortfalls.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. According to monitoring data from the RRR4U analytical consortium, Ukraine entered May 2026 with 15 overdue reform indicators from 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, putting up to €4.5 billion ($5.22 billion) in financing at stake. The tranche was unlocked in part due to a European Commission methodology change allowing reform targets completed ahead of schedule to offset delayed indicators. The payment was announced on the European Council’s website and by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko in her Telegram post. Payments under the Ukraine Facility are tied to the Ukraine Plan, Kyiv’s roadmap for recovery, reconstruction, and modernization, structured around reform milestones aligned with the country’s EU accession bid. Ukraine will now wait for the cash to land in Ukraine’s budget. “As of the end of May 2026, through our joint efforts, 86 steps of the Ukraine Plan have already been completed, with another 65 in the process of implementation,” Svyrydenko’s update says. “We are continuing together to implement reforms and move along the path of European integration,” it adds.