Congress of the Victors: an expert explained why it was important to secure a €90 billion EU loan

Political strategist Mikhail Sheitelman stated that the EU ultimately managed to allocate Ukraine a €90 billion loan for two years and explained why this was so important in the current situation, Politeka reports. He spoke about this on his blog.

“It turns out that European leaders decided to make an event out of this, which is why Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew to Cyprus for an informal EU summit. And I think what they decided to stage was something like a congress of victors. That is, we defeated the ‘evil’ Viktor Orbán, we expelled the bad ‘fat boy’ from our ranks,” Mikhail Sheitelman emphasizes.

As the expert recalls, both Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen, along with other European leaders, said they would not resort to any обходные пути (workarounds), and would focus specifically on allocating this €90 billion loan rather than providing fragmented support. Thus, he concludes, the partners demonstrated that they had prevailed and that they remain a force.

“But in fact, with this €90 billion loan, we were hanging by a thread. We can talk as much as we want about the strength of our army—which is true—and about the excellent drones and missiles produced by our defense industry, but without money this is impossible. None of this can be done on enthusiasm alone, because there would be no funds to buy materials, nothing to feed those who are fighting, and nothing to shoot with. That’s all. You may have heard a certain panic in my voice—I didn’t know what to do about this. I believed, but I didn’t know. So credit to the Europeans. But also credit to the Hungarians, of course, for helping make this happen,” explains Mikhail Sheitelman.

The expert also notes that Zelenskyy said he expects the first tranche of this loan at the end of May or the beginning of June. This first tranche, he adds, will go toward armaments, supporting the army, producing drones and electronic warfare systems, purchasing scarce weapons from partners, and providing assistance to civilians.