EU Approves $106B Ukraine Loan After Hungary Lifts Veto
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- European Union approved a 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) loan package to Ukraine on Thursday, funding economic and military needs for two years, after Hungary lifted a months-long veto tied to the Druzhba oil pipeline dispute.
- Hungary's Viktor Orbán dropped his veto after crude oil began flowing again through the Druzhba pipeline, which had been halted in January after damage Ukraine blamed on Russian drone attacks; Hungarian energy group MOL confirmed Thursday that deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia resumed after a nearly three-month hiatus.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the funds will "strengthen, of course first of all our army" and allow Ukraine to boost domestic weapons production, with the loans expected to be available in coming weeks and months.
- The EU simultaneously approved a new sanctions package against Russia, targeting more than 40 ships in Russia's shadow fleet, additional banks, imposing a ban on Europeans using Russian cryptocurrency, and freezing assets of around 60 more entities — bringing the total list of sanctioned Russian officials and entities past 2,600.
- Orbán had reneged on a December deal to support the loan as campaigning heated up ahead of the April 12 election he lost in a landslide; the EU had originally planned to back the loan with frozen Russian assets, but Belgium blocked that option because the bulk of those assets are held there.
- Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico welcomed the pipeline restart as "good news" but alleged the pipeline and oil "were used in the current geopolitical battle," saying he still does not believe the damage was genuine.
- The episode has intensified calls among senior EU officials for more majority voting, spotlighting how unanimity rules allow a single member state to hold the bloc's foreign policy hostage to national interests.
Why it matters: Ukraine secures a $106 billion lifeline to prop up its war-ravaged economy over two years, and Russia faces new sanctions on the oil revenue and shadow-fleet infrastructure underwriting Putin's military — but the months Hungary's veto held up the package shows how a single member state can paralyze 27-nation EU foreign policy under unanimity rules, accelerating pressure to shift to majority voting on major decisions.
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