Fixed pipeline to unblock EU loan

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — European Union (EU) countries were set to make a push Wednesday to unblock a 90-billion-euro ($106 billion) loan for Ukraine, after Kyiv said it had fixed a damaged pipeline that had sparked a veto from Hungary.

Hungary’s outgoing nationalist leader Viktor Orban — who lost elections this month — has stalled the loan for months as leverage in a feud with Ukraine over the Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian oil.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said Kyiv had completed repairs on the pipeline hit by a Russian strike and urged the EU to green light the badly needed loan.

But Budapest has said it was waiting for oil to actually start flowing again before it would lift its veto.

A Ukrainian official told Agence France-Presse Wednesday morning that oil should start flowing to Hungary and Slovakia “within a few hours” through the pipeline.

Ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 member states meeting in Brussels were expected later in the day to be asked to give their final greenlight to the loan.

Hungary should then have a few hours to either agree or object in writing to the approval.

The ambassadors were also due to consider approving a new package of sanctions on Russia that had been held up by the row.

Russia-friendly Orban’s crushing defeat in elections after 16 year in power had fuelled hopes that the loan would be unlocked.

But EU officials had believed they may have to wait until his pro-EU successor Peter Magyar takes office in May to get it approved.