EU pushes G7 to accelerate €45B loan to Ukraine
Photo: G7 calls for accelerated loan disbursements (Getty Images)
Brussels is pressing the US, Japan, and the UK to speed up the disbursement of a 45-billion-euro loan to Ukraine as early as this week, according to Euractiv.
Why Brussels in a hurry
EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Valdis Dombrovskis is traveling to Washington this week for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
There, he plans to personally persuade G7 partners to speed up payments under the so-called ERA loan, an emergency financing scheme that the G7 approved back in 2024 and secured with frozen assets of the Russian central bank.
What has been paid out, and what hasn’t
The EU has already transferred its share—18.1 billion euros. But the total amount of the ERA loan is 45 billion euros, and about 7 billion remains unpaid. Japan, the UK, and the US have not yet provided their shares.
Dombrovskis will meet with G7 Ministers on Wednesday and Thursday. Separate meetings are also scheduled:
- with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on April 15
- with Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko on April 16.
Where 90-billion-euro loan stuck
Alongside the ERA loan, there is another, larger package, a 90-billion-euro loan from the EU. Hungary is blocking it: outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused Kyiv of deliberately delaying repairs to the Druzhba pipeline, through which Russia supplies oil to Hungary.
EU officials warn: even if the new Hungarian government led by Péter Magyar lifts the veto, Ukraine will not be able to receive the funds until the second half of 2026.
According to European Commission estimates, Ukraine’s total budgetary and military financing needs for 2026–2027 amount to approximately 135 billion euros. Of this amount, 45 billion euros must be covered by the G7 and other partners. Currently, only about 15 billion euros have been secured.
Hungary's election winner Péter Magyar stated that Budapest would lift its veto on an EU loan to Ukraine as soon as oil supplies resume via the Druzhba pipeline.
At the same time, Hungary is refusing to participate financially in the program.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is confident that the EU will provide Ukraine with the expected 90 billion. This is a lifeline for the Ukrainian army, the President notes.
