European Union ambassadors have given a green light to a 90 billion euros ($106 billion) loan for Ukraine for this and next year after Hungary and Slovakia lifted their vetoes following the resumption of operations on the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian oil -- exempt from EU sanctions -- through Ukraine to Central Europe.
The group announced the decision on April 22, saying it would become official once oil transiting through the pipeline was flowing into the region. The meeting also approved a 20th sanctions package on Russia over its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
"The oil started pumping at 11:30 CET. That means that the oil should reach the Hungarian and Slovak borders by the end of the day or early tomorrow," a European official told RFE/RL.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a day earlier that Ukraine had completed repair work on a section of the pipeline that had been damaged by a Russian air strike.
However, he also warned that "no one can currently guarantee that Russia will not repeat attacks on the pipeline infrastructure."
The oil deliveries ground to a halt at the end of January after damage caused by Russian air strikes. Moscow has targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure as part of its war strategy.
Both Hungary and Slovakia have for months accused Kyiv of stalling to repair it for political reasons with Budapest opting to block a raft of Ukraine-related measures -- including the loan but also more EU sanctions on Russia -- until the Druzhba was up and running again.
Ukraine rejected the accusations but also lashed out at the EU, accusing it of "blackmail" by urging it to quickly repair the damaged pipeline.
Money To Fix Druzhba Pipeline
In March, the European Commission announced that it sent financial aid to restore Druzhba and dispatched a team of experts to inspect the damaged part, although that team reportedly never left Kyiv.
The latest move puts an end to a long-running saga over the loan that initially was agreed by EU leaders, including Hungary and Slovakia, at a summit in Brussels in December 2025.
Leaders opted for a loan backed by the EU budget instead of a much-publicized "reparation loan" using Russian assets currently frozen inside the bloc as collateral. Belgium vetoed that initiative as most of the assets sit in the Brussels-based financial markets company Euroclear.
The funds will now be raised by EU countries jointly borrowing on financial markets, backed by what Brussels calls EU budget "headroom," meaning the gap between the bloc's maximum borrowing capacity under its long-term budget, which runs until 2027, and its actual spending levels.
The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia all secured carve-outs, so this is a deal involving 24 EU countries, not 27, but the trio still had to approve using the EU budget to back the loan.
The EU is now hopeful the first batch of the loan can be delivered to Ukraine by the end of April or early May.
Last year, the International Monetary Fund estimated Ukraine would need around 135 billion euros in financing for 2026 and 2027, with Brussels committed to cover the largest share of that.
