The European Union has disbursed the first €3 billion (US$3.4 billion) tranche of a €90 billion loan to Ukraine, the country’s prime minister announced on Thursday at the opening of a conference on Ukraine’s post-war recovery in Poland.

The conference, attended by key European leaders including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is both a fundraising forum and a message to Russia that Ukraine’s Western supporters are in it for a long haul.

“We are forced to innovate to survive and this has become our superpower,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said, adding that Ukraine was grateful for the support promised to her war-battered nation.

Von der Leyen reasserted the EU’s financial commitment to Ukraine, just days after the country officially started EU membership negotiations on June 15.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, EU countries have provided €200 billion in economic, financial and military support to Ukraine, and approved €90 billion more over the next two years in the form of an EU support loan, she said.

The EU also will start paying another €6 billion, a second tranche from the loan dedicated to drone production, “in the coming days”, she added.