The European Commission said in a statement on Tuesday that it had disbursed 500 million euros (about 677.87 million U.S. dollars) to Ukraine.

According to the statement, it was the first loan tranche from the new EU Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA II) program for Ukraine, which follows a disbursement of 100 million euros on May 20 from the previously agreed MFA program (MFA I).

The objective of both MFA programs is to support Ukraine economically and financially in the current critical stage of its development.

"The European Union is providing essential support for Ukraine's efforts to address its major economic challenges," said Olli Rehn, the European Commission Vice President for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro.

"Today's disbursement is a further concrete sign of European solidarity towards the people of Ukraine. It is vital that Ukraine seizes this opportunity to take forward reforms to deliver budgetary stability, sustainable growth and job creation," he added.

Total EU MFA support for Ukraine comes up to 1.61 billion euros, with 1.01 billion euros remaining after today's disbursement.

"The assistance is part of a wider package of support for Ukraine announced by the European Commission on 5 March and endorsed by EU leaders at the European Council of 6 March," said the EU statement.

Macro-Financial Assistance is an exceptional EU crisis-response instrument available to the EU's neighbouring partner countries experiencing severe balance of payments problems.

The programme is complementary to the assistance provided by the IMF. MFA loans are financed through EU borrowings on capital markets. The funds are then on-lent with similar financial terms to the beneficiary countries. (1 euro = 1.36 U.S. dollar)