EU signs off on Ukraine loan, new Russia sanctions

BRUSSELS: The EU on Thursday gave final approval to a 90-billion-euro ($105 billion) loan for Ukraine and a new round of sanctions on Russia, in a boost for Kyiv after a prolonged row.
The measures were signed off when Hungary and Slovakia dropped objections after Ukraine restarted oil flows following repairs to the damaged Druzhba pipeline.
'Deadlock over,' EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas posted online. 'Russia's war economy is under growing strain, while Ukraine is getting a major boost.'
The row has held up EU support for Ukraine at a time when the United States has largely cut Kyiv off and eased sanctions on Russian oil amid the Iran war.
Hungary's outgoing prime minister Viktor Orban — who suffered a crushing election defeat this month — stalled the loan as leverage to get Ukraine to fix the pipeline carrying Russian oil to his landlocked country.
The green light means that Brussels should be able to start paying out the funds in the coming months that Kyiv badly needs to plug budget black holes four years into Russia's war.
At the same time, the EU's 27 countries also signed off on a new package of sanctions against Moscow that had been held up by both Hungary and Slovakia over the same row.
The new round of economic punishment for the Kremlin — the 20th by the EU since the war started — targets Russia's energy, banking and trade sectors.
The measures included clamping down further on the so-called 'shadow fleet' of ageing tankers that Moscow uses to skirt oil export restrictions, and curbs on Russian cryptocurrency traders.
But the EU stopped short of imposing a full maritime service ban for vessels carrying Russian crude, saying it hoped to get G7 partners to go ahead together on it at a later date.
The bloc also announced it was stopping sales of certain machinery to Kyrgyzstan to prevent the products from going to Russia.
That marks the first time the US has used a mechanism to halt entire categories of exports to a specific country to avoid sanctions dodging.
Orbán had accused Ukraine of blocking the resumption of Russian oil supplies via the pipeline for political reasons ahead of Hungary's parliamentary elections, which he lost decisively.
Kiev rejected the allegation, saying the pipeline required repairs following Russian air strikes in January. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced earlier this week that the pipeline had been repaired.
On Thursday, Slovakia confirmed that Russian oil is again reaching the country.
Later in the day, Hungary said it was also receiving Russian crude oil again via the pipeline.
The Hungarian oil company MOL, which processes the Russian oil, said the first shipment of crude oil arrived on Thursday morning at the Hungarian pumping station in Fenyeslitke, near the Ukrainian border. — Agencies