Agreement for urgently needed loan reached after Ukraine resumed pumping Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia
EU member states have reached agreement on unblocking an urgently needed €90bn (£78bn) loan for Kyiv and a new package of sanctions against Moscow after Ukraine resumed pumping Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, prompting Budapest to lift its veto.
Cyprus, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, said member states’ ambassadors had agreed to launch “written procedures” for the final approval of the loan and the sanctions package, with formal signoff on both due by Thursday afternoon.
The EU agreed in December on the loan, vital to keep Ukraine afloat this year and next, but Hungary’s outgoing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, backed by Slovakia, vetoed it in March because of a dispute with Kyiv over a damaged oil pipeline.
Orbán, who lost to a centre-right challenger, Péter Magyar, in elections on 12 April, accused Ukraine of deliberately delaying repairs to the Druzhba pipeline which carries oil to Hungary and Slovakia, both of which are heavily dependent on Russian oil.
