Ukraine's parliament gives final sign-off on EU loan, first payment expected mid-June
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Ukraine's parliament ratified two key documents on May 28, finalizing the terms on which Kyiv will receive a 90 billion euro ($105 billion) support loan from the EU, with the first tranche expected to arrive in mid-June.
The money is essential both to directly support Ukraine's war efforts and to cover the wider government budget, and it is expected to cover two-thirds of Ukraine's total needs for 2026 and 2027.
The vote passed overwhelmingly, with 298 of the 310 lawmakers in attendance voting in favor, and nobody voting directly against.
"I am grateful to all the MPs who so promptly ratified the agreement," President Volodymyr Zelensky said after the vote.
"These funds will strengthen our resilience and help protect the lives of our people, rebuild what has been destroyed by Russian strikes, and defend our independence," he added.
Both European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her colleague Valdis Dombrovskis, who led EU work on the loan, praised the parliament in Kyiv.
Dombrovskis said "work continues, now preparing the first disbursement," which von der Leyen confirmed will land in June.
However, the Ukrainian parliament's work to continue receiving the money is far from over.
For each tranche of the 90-billion-euro loan, which will be disbursed gradually through 2026 and 2027, the EU and Ukraine have agreed on conditions that Kyiv has to fulfill in order to receive the cash, some of which will not be popular.
The parliament has also already shown signs of struggling to keep up with the reform agenda. On May 22, EU leaders could only approve partial payments of three separate rounds of financial assistance, because the parliament had failed to pass all the necessary reforms.
Assuming the parliament can pass everything, there remains still one-third of Ukraine's budgetary needs unaccounted for, and a 19.6 billion euro ($22.8 billion) hole in the defense budget.
