Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that the unblocking of a €90bn European Union loan to Kyiv was “the right signal under the current circumstances.”
Writing on X, Zelenskyy said that incentives for Russia to end its war in Ukraine “can arise only when both support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia are sufficient.”
He added that Ukraine was fulfilling its obligations in relations with the European Union – even on such sensitive issues as the operation of the Druzhba oil pipeline.
He said it was important that the European support package “becomes operational swiftly”.
Irish foreign minister Helen McEntee has confirmed that Hungary dropped its veto on the €90bn loan for Ukraine.
In a series of posts on X, she said:
“I welcome Hungary’s confirmation in Coreper that it will lift its block on the €90bn loan, alongside the readiness of both Hungary and Slovakia to lift their block on the 20th sanctions package.
This is a positive and constructive step forward that underscores our shared commitment to unity, solidarity and decisive action at a critical time.
I look forward to the formal confirmation through Council written procedures and to continued close cooperation in advancing our common European priorities.”
Coreper, for those not familiar with Brussels speak, is the Committee of Permanent Representatives, where EU ambassadors meet to hash out issues before they get formally signed off by their national leaders.
Russia has confirmed Wednesday that it would suspend the shipment of oil from Kazakhstan to Germany from May 1, citing “technical” reasons after on from earlier reports (see 14.38 CEST).
“From 1 May, volumes of Kazakh oil previously transported via the Druzhba pipeline to Germany will indeed be redirected to other available logistics routes. This is due to current technical capacities,” Russia’s deputy prime minister Alexander Novak told journalists, including from AFP, at the Kremlin.
He did not give a timeline for the resumption of supplies.
The German government on Wednesday halved its growth forecast for this year as the energy shock triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran hammers Europe’s biggest economy, Reuters reports.
The economy ministry said it expected gross domestic product (GDP) to expand 0.5% in 2026, down from a projection of 1% made in January.
It also cut its forecast for 2027 to 0.9%, down from 1.3%.
Hopes had been high that the eurozone’s traditional growth engine would sputter back to life in 2026 after years of stagnation, driven by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s public spending blitz.
But the jump in oil and gas prices since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran has dealt the economy a heavy blow, pushing up overall inflation and raising costs for the country’s crucial manufacturers.
Presenting the new forecasts, economy minister Katherina Reiche said that before the conflict, there had been signs of a moderate recovery.
“But the escalation in the Middle East has set us back economically,” she told a press conference. “The shock has hit the structurally weakened German economy hard once again.”
But at the same time it looks like Russia plans to halt the flow of Kazakh oil through the Druzhba pipeline to a refinery in eastern Germany starting 1 May, according to what the German energy ministry told AFP.
The German subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft told German regulators that the Russian energy ministry had ordered the halt, the ministry confirmed to AFP, adding that Moscow had not confirmed the decision directly to the German government.
Rosneft Germany “is currently assessing the implications” of the pipeline closure for the refinery and is “utilising all available options to ensure security of supply in Germany”, the ministry said.
The German government took Rosneft Germany into trusteeship in the wake of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and European Union sanctions on the Russian energy sector.
The PCK refinery near the Polish border supplies much of the Berlin region with fuel, but the German government voiced confidence that the impact would be limited, AFP said.
Government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said that changes in the “output from the pipeline will not significantly restrict refinery operations”, although he added that officials are keeping a close eye on the availability of kerosene in particular.
Meanwhile, a German government spokesperson said that the disbursement of the much-promised €90bn EU loan to Ukraine could happen within 24 hours, Reuters reported.
Obviously, that’s if Hungary does not object in writing before tomorrow’s final deadline for the formal procedure.
Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nausėda is the first leader to celebrate the apparent breakthrough on the €90bn loan.
In a post on X, he said:
“Welcoming the long-awaited decision to unlock €90bn for Ukraine. Europe delivers when united. We stand firmly with Ukraine and President @ZelenskyyU.”
With the written process ending tomorrow afternoon, it all sets us up nicely for a big moment in the evening, when the EU leaders arrive for their meeting in Cyprus, so they can celebrate the breakthrough and the disbursement of the much-needed money for Ukraine.
In this context, it’s probably not that surprising that Hungary’s outgoing prime minister Viktor Orbán who had been blocking the loan for the last four months is planning to skip tomorrow’s meeting.
The incoming prime minister, Péter Magyar, can’t represent Hungary until he takes office early next month.
And here it is.
The Cypriot presidency of the European Union has just confirmed that the €90bn loan has been given a preliminary go-ahead by EU ambassadors.
Curiously, they say the 20th package of sanctions against Russia has also been given a preliminary green light. Slovakia’s Fico suggested earlier that Slovakia would continue to block them until the pipeline is “actually reopened” (12:02), so it sounds like he’s satisfied that it has.
“They will now go through a written procedure for their final adoption by the Council,” a Cypriot presidency spokesperson said.
The written procedure is expected to conclude tomorrow afternoon, which conveniently is also when the EU leaders are set to meet in Cyprus.
Let’s see if there are any late plot twists in this saga.
And we are now hearing via Reuters that as the Druzhba pipeline is now operational, Hungary has withdrawn its opposition to the finalisation of the €90bn loan for Ukraine.
Czech TV ČT24 also says the final process to approve the loan is now under way.
We will no doubt get a more official confirmation pretty soon.
Here’s the official confirmation!
Hungarian oil giant MOL just passed on a message from the Ukrainian operator, JSC Ukrtransnafta, that “the receipt of crude oil from Belarus via the Druzhba pipeline system began in Ukraine at noon today.”
“MOL expects the first crude oil shipments following the restart of the Ukrainian section of the pipeline system to arrive in Hungary and Slovakia by tomorrow at the latest,” it added.
Back in Brussels, the EU’s energy commissioner has warned that the oil price crisis could last months or years even if there is peace.
He has confirmed that the aviation sector could face the prospect of a shortage in jet fuel in the next five or six weeks.
“Jet fuel: this is the area now that is under most pressure and the IEA [International energy agency] has estimated that within five or six weeks we can have a real security of supply issue,” said Dan Jørgensen at a briefing unveiling emergency measures to deal with the crisis caused by the Iran war.
The EU imports 30% to 40% of its jet fuel needs, with about half coming from the Middle East.
Jørgensen said they had developed new tools in Brussels to ensure an “overview of refining capacity and stock in our diffeernt member states.
But he added: “But obviously we have to be quite honest and say that whether or not we will be a security-of-supply crisis is primarily a result of what goes on in the Middle East,” he said.
He warned that even if a peace deal is struck in the next few weeks between Iran and the US, the crisis will last months and perhaps years.
“We are looking into some very difficult months, or maybe even years depending on the development in the Middle East,” he said.
He argued:
“Take Qatar. It may take two years to rebuild its gas and transportation structure.
It means that the world market for LNG prices will not stabilise of even fall as was expected in the next couple of years.
Even a best case scenario is a pretty bad scenario for the months to come.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
