“I am grateful to all the MPs who so promptly ratified the agreement with the European Union,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. “This was one of the most important votes.”
An overwhelming majority of the parliament’s members voted in favor of the ratification bill despite complaints about the way in which it was presented to lawmakers. Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said that legislative text had been hastily translated overnight and rushed onto the parliamentary agenda on Thursday morning.
The aid package is expected to be paid out in two annual €45 billion installments. Roughly two-thirds of the loan will go to Ukraine’s defense expenditures, with the remaining cash financing the general budget. Although Brussels has pitched the deal as a loan, Ukraine only has to repay the principal if it eventually receives reparation payments from Russia — a scenario that is considered to be unlikely. The EU has agreed to cover the interest on the loan, as well.
Brussels first proposed the aid package last January. Hungary and Slovakia conditioned their support for the deal on the restoration of the Druzhba pipeline, which pumps Russian oil through Ukraine to both EU members, and which was put out of commission by a Russian drone attack earlier this year. After the key piece of infrastructure was repaired in April, both Budapest and Bratislava dropped their objections.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday said the first disbursements of the loan would arrive in Kyiv in June.