KYIV — The EU will deliver on its promise to give Ukraine a much-needed €90 billion loan, despite Hungary attempting to derail the effort at the last minute, top officials said on Tuesday.
Speaking in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council chief António Costa both insisted that the loan would go ahead soon.
“We will deliver on our word one way or the other,” von der Leyen told reporters. “Let me be clear. We have different options and we will use them.”
They were speaking in the Ukrainian capital on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“I invite the Commission to use all the tools we have in the treaty to overcome this, to avoid that everyone can blackmail the European Union,” Costa said. “And we have tools in the treaties.”
The pronouncements came after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who faces an election in April, repeated his threat to block the EU loan, accusing Kyiv of slow-walking repairs to the Druzhba oil pipeline, which was damaged in a Russian drone attack in late January.
“It’s not the first time when the prime minister of Hungary blocks something,” Zelenskyy said when asked about Orbán’s move. “Russia destroyed these pipelines several times … it’s up to Orbán to speak to Putin” to persuade him to agree to an energy ceasefire.
