UPDATED: EU to provide Ukraine with loan worth up to 35 bln euros – von der Leyen
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The EU will grant a loan of up to 35 billion euros ($39.06 billion)to Ukraine to help the country stuck in a grinding war with Russia, EU Commission President Ursulo von der Leyen announced on Friday.
The loan, which was announced while the bloc’s Commission chief is on a visit to Kyiv, is part of a wider plan among G7 nations to raise funds using proceeds from Russian assets frozen to sanction the country for invading its neighbour.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday she had arrived in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to discuss Europe’s support, winter preparedness, defence and progress on the G7 loans.
“My 8th visit to Kyiv comes as the heating season starts soon, and Russia keeps targeting energy infrastructure,” von der Leyen said on the X social network.
The first thing I do in Kyiv is to pay tribute to the fallen defenders of Ukraine over the past 10 years.
They are real heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for the security of our continent as a whole.
Von der Leyen said on Thursday that the sum of 160 million euros from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets would be allocated to meet Ukraine’s urgent humanitarian needs for this winter.
Russia has knocked out about 9 gigawatts (GW) of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which von der Leyen said was the “power equivalent of the three Baltic states”.
She also said that the EU aimed to restore 2.5 GW of power generating capacity and would increase exports to supply 2 GW of electricity to Ukraine.
Von der Leyen will meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials.
Zelenskiy will meet Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the White House next week in what is likely to be his last such visit before US elections that could upend Washington’s policy on Kyiv. Zelenskiy is expected to share a “victory plan” with the US leaders to end the war with Russia during the visit on 26 September – as Kyiv frets that a second Donald Trump presidency could loosen US commitment to Ukraine. In a separate announcement, Zelenskiy said he would also meet Trump.
