{"id":792501,"date":"2026-02-27T12:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/792501\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T12:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:20:11","slug":"imf-approves-8b-loan-to-ukraine-despite-eu-clash-with-hungary-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/792501\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF approves $8B loan to Ukraine despite EU clash with Hungary \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The international lender had initially demanded more assurances over Kyiv&#8217;s financial stability before approving the loan \u2014 this came when a majority of EU countries agreed late last year to raise \u20ac90 billion in joint debt to shore up Ukraine against Russia.<\/p>\n<p>But the IMF&#8217;s cash cushion is tiny. Kyiv\u2019s budget shortfall is set to widen beyond $50 billion this year, putting pressure on the EU to overcome a dispute with Hungary that\u2019s blocking crucial financial support.<\/p>\n<p>The EU\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/european-council-summit-eu-agrees-e90b-ukraine-loan-russian-assets-plan-fails\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">planned \u20ac90 billion loan<\/a> to Ukraine would help plug the gap. But Hungary is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/hungary-eu-viktor-orban-ukraine-loan-veto-druzhba-pipeline-crisis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blocking<\/a> the financing package amid accusations that Ukraine is deliberately slow-walking repairs to the damaged 4,000-kilometer Druzhba pipeline, which carries vital supplies of Russian oil to Hungary, on political grounds.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine has dismissed the accusations. The European Commission has also downplayed the risk of an immediate energy crunch in Hungary, which has 90 days\u2019 worth of oil supplies it can use.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Brussels\u2019 top brass is trying to solve the dispute without playing into an anti-EU political campaign that Hungary\u2019s prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, is pursuing ahead of a national election in April.<\/p>\n<p>The Hungarian leader has also weaponized anti-Ukraine sentiment ahead of the election, with his political party, Fidesz, trailing the opposition, Tisza, in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/europe-poll-of-polls\/hungary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">polls by a wide margin<\/a>. A loss would see Orb\u00e1n&#8217;s 16-year reign come to an end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The international lender had initially demanded more assurances over Kyiv&#8217;s financial stability before approving the loan \u2014 this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[11783,17466,331,33108,52871,2000,299,155245,20327,18421,2190,1197,18956,2441,332,7339,2663,657,1781,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-792501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-antonio-costa","9":"tag-asset-management","10":"tag-banks","11":"tag-economic-governance","12":"tag-economic-sanctions","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european-monetary-union","16":"tag-eurozone","17":"tag-finance-and-banking","18":"tag-hungary","19":"tag-investment","20":"tag-kristalina-georgieva","21":"tag-markets","22":"tag-russia","23":"tag-russia-sanctions","24":"tag-sanctions","25":"tag-ukraine","26":"tag-viktor-orban","27":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116142566931740480","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}