Volodymyr Zelenskiy was probably sweating in the heat of the Ayia Napa sun in his trademark black outfit, but he no doubt felt like a billion dollars, or more accurately €90 billion.
The Ukrainian president joined the European Union’s 27 national leaders for a summit in Cyprus to welcome the news that the block on a critical EU loan to Kyiv had formally been lifted.
Hungary’s outgoing far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán had been vetoing the EU extending the €90 billion loan to Ukraine, ostensibly over a dispute about a pipeline damaged during the war that had been supplying Budapest with cheap Russian oil.
News that the pipeline had been repaired by Ukraine in recent days broke the back of Orbán’s obstruction, in what is the final weeks of his government following opposition leader Petér Magyar’s sweeping victory.
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The €90 billion will be borrowed by the EU as a bloc to help keep the lights on in Ukraine and shore up its budget for the next two years.
A separate package of economic sanctions targeting Russia was also formally signed off on Thursday, having similarly been blocked for months.
“This day, today, is a great day, an important day for Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said in Cyprus.
The €90 billion loan would “push” Russia to think seriously about peace negotiations by putting Ukraine on a solid footing, he said.
The Ukrainian president and EU leaders gathered in a gleaming event centre on the coastal resort town’s marina that looks out on a pier full of luxury yachts.
The leaders were being hosted by the Cyprus government, which holds the rotating Council of the EU presidency, the deal-making role that Ireland will take over in July.
Orbán turned down the chance to sun himself at the popular holiday destination and skipped the Mediterranean summit.
[ Who is Peter Magyar, the man set to take over from Viktor Orbán in Hungary?Opens in new window ]
It would have been his goodbye European Council meeting after 16 years in power, during which time the Hungarian went from an awkward but manageable thorn in Brussels’ side to someone actively working against the interests of the union.
Nikos Christodoulides, president of the Cyprus, said Europe would have to “wait and see” how Orbán’s exit shook up the union’s common foreign policy positions.
Kristen Michal, prime minister of Estonia, said the message from elections in Hungary was “felt all over Europe”. That message was that pulling against everybody else was not the wisest approach, he said.
Orbán had also used national veto powers to stop talks on Ukraine’s bid to become an EU member from moving forward.
Accession negotiation can take a decade at the best of times, but Ukraine wants a fast-track path. Zelenskiy has even talked about entry by 2027, a timeline most European governments privately view as unrealistic.
Orbán’s blanket refusal to allow negotiations to move forward had allowed other sceptical capitals, such as Paris and Berlin, to avoid being the bad guy raining on Kyiv’s parade.
Belgium’s hard-right prime minister Bart de Wever said his country supported a “merit based approach” to enlargement. That’s code for not rushing Ukraine into the fold.
De Wever said the solution might be some type of “multilayered Europe” short of full membership, something he dubbed the “onion model”.
The sun had set by the time Zelenskiy spoke to the waiting gaggle of journalists in Cyprus. You can tell the former comedian is in good form when he hangs on to take plenty of questions and starts cracking jokes.
“I love specific dates, I’m not sure that everybody loves them,” Zelenskiy said when asked about Ukraine’s timeline to become a member of the EU club.
[ EU provisionally approves €90bn loan to Ukraine and new Moscow sanctionsOpens in new window ]
[ How the EU's loan to Ukraine will workOpens in new window ]
