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The Czech and Slovak prime ministers on Tuesday slammed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for urging "a collective commitment" by fellow European Union members to help fund Ukraine.

    Merz has said in a letter seen by AFP that the EU needs to agree on funding to keep Ukraine going next year as it keeps battling a Russian invasion, before the bloc can resolve a standoff over the next budget.

    Brussels has said Kyiv is facing a 70-billion-euro ($78 billion) shortfall in 2027, of which the 27-nation EU should look to cover some 45 billion euros.

    Merz told EU chief Antonio Costa in the letter first reported by the Financial Times that "a collective commitment that all of us, without exception, will contribute fairly to closing this gap is an essential prerequisite for resolving this issue".

    "What the chancellor is doing is typical blackmail, and I will not give in to it," Slovakia's nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico told reporters in Bratislava.

    "We are a sovereign country... (and) we have our own opinion on the matter."

    Fico, who fosters close ties with the Kremlin, has rejected direct military aid to Ukraine.

    Visiting Bratislava on Tuesday, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, whose nationalist government also rejects military aid to Ukraine, dismissed Merz's comment, citing the EU's overall support for Ukraine.

    "I do not know why he is saying it," Babis said.

    The EU last year came up with a 90-billion-euro loan for Ukraine, but as Russia has stepped up its bombardments of Ukraine's infrastructure it has become increasingly clear that those funds will run out before the end of next year.

    Both Prague and Bratislava negotiated an exemption from guarantees for the loan.

    European diplomats and EU officials say they expect the bloc to agree to a new loan for Ukraine modelled around the earlier 90-billion-euro one.

    Merz asked Costa to add the matter to the agenda of an EU leaders' meeting in Dublin on Friday.