The EU approves a loan of 35 billion to Ukraine to be paid with frozen Russian assets

This new aid, which was announced by Ursula von der Leyen on his last visit to kyiv, is the quota corresponding to the European Union of the 45 billion euro credit that was announced in June by the G7 countries. Its objective is to guarantee sufficient financing for Ukraine in the medium term in the event of a possible victory of donald trump in the November elections in the United States.

Although the Ultra Government Viktor Orbán –who holds the current presidency of the Council of the EU, has left the way free for the European loan – has vetoed the measure required by Joe Biden’s White House to join the initiative. Currently, EU sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine war are unanimously renewed every six months. The United States asks to extend this period to 36 months to have guarantees that Russian assets will not be unfrozen in the short term and that therefore there will be money to repay the loan.

However, Hungary has vetoed extending the renewal period of the sanctions from 6 to 36 months, a blockade that has been criticized by the Commission itself and the majority of Member States, as reported by diplomatic sources. Budapest assures that it is only willing to discuss this issue after the November 5 elections in the United States. Orbán said this week that he will open “several bottles of champagne” if Trump wins, who has avoided supporting kyiv and assures that he has a plan to end the war immediately.

The new loan of 35 billion to Ukraine still must be ratified by the European Parliament, something that will probably happen in the plenary session on October 23. That will allow it to come into force from October 29, although The first disbursements are not planned until 2025.

“This loan will be repaid from windfall profits from frozen Russian assets and will flow directly into the national budget of Ukraine. We are forcing Russia to pay for the damage it has caused and we will be with Ukraine during this winter and for as long as necessary,” said the President of the Commission in a speech in the European Parliament in which she harshly attacked the entente between Orbán’s Hungary and Vladimir Putin.

As part of the sanctions for the war, the EU keeps immobilized around 210,000 million of euros Central Bank of Russia since the outbreak of war, which have been blocked in Euroclear, one of the largest securities depositories in the world based in Brussels. These assets generate around €3 billion a year and it is this money that will be used to repay the loan to Ukraine.