EU parliament approves 90 bn-euro loan for Ukraine

STRASBOURG: The EU parliament on Wednesday approved a 90-billion-euro loan for Ukraine, providing a financial lifeline to cash-strapped Kyiv four years into Russia's attack. Lawmakers voted by 458 to 140 in favour of the loan, intended to cover two-thirds of Ukraine's financial needs for 2026 and 2027 and backed by the EU's common budget — after plans to tap frozen Russian central bank assets fell by the wayside. 'Support for Ukraine rests on a small number of countries and most if it comes from Europe,' centrist lawmaker Nathalie Loiseau said ahead of the vote. 'It is our honour — and it's in our interest because our security is at stake,' she said.
Under the scheme, Ukraine will be able to spend 60 billion euros of the loan on desperately-needed weapons to fight off Russia's attack, with the rest earmarked for general budget support. The EU has said Ukraine would only need to pay back the money once Moscow coughs up for the damages President Vladimir Putin's attack has wrought. Brussels will cover interest costs, expected to hover around three billion euros per year, through the EU budget. 'This is Putin's war. Make Russia pay,' Karin Karlsbro, the centrist lawmaker steering the file through parliament, told lawmakers.
Member states reached a deal last week on the conditions for the loan, paving the way for Kyiv to get the funds it needs in the coming months. The European Commission is pushing for a first disbursement in April. A key point was how much weaponry Ukraine can buy from outside the EU or from its own industry — with Kyiv pushing to be allowed to buy weapons from wherever it needs. France was seeking limits on purchases from outside the EU, while other countries had argued to open it up more to close partners such as Britain, Canada and Norway.
Under the compromise deal, Kyiv can use the loan to buy certain arms from countries beyond the EU if producers in the bloc cannot provide them quickly enough. That should mean Ukraine can use the funds to buy some weaponry from the United States, such as key Patriot air defence missiles. And EU ambassadors agreed that firms from key allies like Britain that have provided considerable support for Ukraine could be eligible for a greater share of the funds. But that would depend on those countries being willing to cover a 'fair and proportionate' share of the borrowing costs of the loan — whose exact level is yet to be negotiated with the countries concerned.
Meanwhile, military aid to Ukraine hit its lowest level in 2025 as the US pulled funding, leaving Europe almost alone in footing the bill and averting a complete collapse, the Kiel Institute said on Wednesday. Kyiv's allies allocated 36 billion euros in military aid in 2025, down 14 per cent from 41.1 billion euros the previous year, according to Kiel, which tracks military, financial and humanitarian assistance pledged and delivered to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale attack. Military aid in 2025 was even lower than in 2022, despite the attack not taking place until February 24 that year.
US aid came to a complete halt with President Donald Trump's return to the White House in early 2025. Washington provided roughly half of all military assistance between 2022 and 2024. European countries have thus made a significant effort to plug the gap, increasing their collective allocation by 67 per cent in 2025 compared with the 2022-2024 average. Without that effort, the US cuts could have been even more damaging, the institute argued.
However, the think tank points to 'growing disparities' among European contributors, with Northern and Western European countries accounting for around 95 per cent of military aid. The institute calculated that Northern European countries (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden) provided 33 per cent of European military aid in 2025, despite accounting for only eight per cent of the combined GDP of European donor countries. Southern Europe, which accounts for 19 per cent of the combined GDP of European donors, contributed just three per cent. To help fill the gap left by the United States, Nato launched the PURL programme, under which European donors purchased US weapons for Ukraine, worth 3.7 billion euros in 2025. — AFP