The European Union on Thursday approved a €90bn loan for Ukraine and its twentieth package of sanctions against Moscow, breaking a months-long deadlock that had held the measures hostage to a bitter dispute over oil transit. The breakthrough came after Ukraine completed repairs to the Druzhba pipeline, allowing resumed crude deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia – a condition Budapest had imposed before lifting its veto. Viewed from Brussels, the double announcement represented both a logistical victory and a political signal. The loan, backed by frozen Russian assets as collateral, will channel €60bn into military procurement and €30bn into budget support over the next two years. The sanctions package, the largest in two years, targets 20 Russian banks including the Wildberries-affiliated WB Bank, energy giants Bashneft and Slavneft, and 46 tankers accused of forming part of Moscow’s shadow fleet. Export restrictions now cover laboratory glassware, lubricants, and chemicals, while a full ban on servicing Russian oil shipments awaits coordination with the G7.

From Moscow, the reaction was predictably defiant. Russia’s permanent representation to the EU warned that the “boomerang” of sanctions would return to their authors, insisting the Russian economy retained sufficient resilience. The inclusion of rapper Timati and Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky on individual blacklists underscored the bloc’s determination to target cultural figures deemed complicit in war propaganda. In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the loan but immediately pressed for more, arguing that Ukraine deserved full EU membership – not merely symbolic gestures.

Analysts in London note that the political landscape has shifted. Hungary’s outgoing prime minister Viktor Orbán, weakened by electoral defeat, no longer holds the bloc hostage on Ukraine matters. Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, confirmed that work has already begun on a 21st sanctions package. The summit in Cyprus saw leaders urge the formal opening of accession negotiation chapters with Kyiv – a prospect that, until this week, seemed remote. The question now is whether the momentum can be sustained, or whether new fault lines will emerge inside the bloc as the war enters its fourth year.