Ukraine, Zelensky: ‘The €90 billion EU loan has been put on hold; it is vital for us’

Brussels, 19 March (LaPresse) – ‘For three months now, Europe’s most important financial security guarantee for Ukraine has not been working: the €90 billion support package for this year and next. This is vital for us. It is a resource for protecting human lives’ and ‘even today we do not know for certain whether this support will be released’. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated this on X in his address to the leaders of the European Council, with whom he was connected via video conference. “We appreciate European support to protect Ukraine from Russian attacks, particularly regarding air defence and drone production. We must continue to seize every opportunity to secure missiles for the Patriot systems. That is why the PURL programme – the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, the NATO-coordinated package to purchase weapons for Kyiv – is useful. We know that not everyone likes the idea of using part of the 90 billion to buy Patriot missiles through the PURL programme if there are no other options. But if there really are no other options, this is necessary to defend against Russian ballistic attacks: it is a matter of saving lives.”