EU near €90bn Ukraine loan

European Union officials said on April 21 they expected a decision within 24 hours on a €90 billion loan for Ukraine. (usnews.com) Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, said in Luxembourg that “positive decisions” were likely on Wednesday, April 22. Reuters reported the package was first agreed in December 2025 and then stalled as Hungary held it up. (usnews.com) The immediate blockage was the Druzhba oil pipeline, which carries Russian crude through Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on April 21 that repairs were complete and flows could resume, after damage from a January drone attack. (apnews.com) Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had tied his support for the loan to restoring those oil shipments. Politico reported on April 14 that Zelenskyy publicly linked the pipeline repair to lifting Budapest’s veto. (politico.eu) The money marks a shift from short-term aid votes to a two-year financing plan. The European Commission says the Ukraine Support Loan is designed to cover Ukraine’s financing needs in 2026 and 2027. (ec.europa.eu) Under the Commission’s plan, the €90 billion envelope is split into €30 billion for budget support and €60 billion for defense procurement. For 2026 alone, Brussels proposed €45 billion in support by Dec. 31, including €16.7 billion in budget aid and €28.3 billion for defense industrial support. (ec.europa.eu) The package is being built through “enhanced cooperation,” an EU procedure that lets a group of member states move ahead without full unanimity. A Council decision dated Jan. 29, 2026 authorized that route for the Ukraine loan. (eur-lex.europa.eu) That structure also reflects a failed fight over frozen Russian assets. Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Union economy commissioner, told the Kyiv Independent on April 21 that a 2025 plan to provide €140 billion from those assets collapsed after Belgian objections. (kyivindependent.com) Dombrovskis said the current loan is backed by EU borrowing, with repayment due only if Russia eventually pays reparations to Ukraine. He added that if reparations do not come, the bloc “will have to come back” to the question of using frozen Russian assets. (kyivindependent.com) Most of those immobilized Russian central bank assets are in Belgium. The Kyiv Independent reported that about €185 billion of roughly €260 billion frozen worldwide is held at Euroclear in Brussels. (kyivindependent.com) So the vote due on April 22 is about more than one loan. It decides whether the European Union can turn a December 2025 promise into cash for Ukraine before the next financing gap opens. (usnews.com)