Ukraine updates: EU sends Ukraine €1 billion in latest loan

The European Union on Friday agreed to extend temporary protection for refugees from Ukraine by one year.

The measure, which was approved by the Council of the EU, affects more than four million Ukrainians who came to the EU in the wake of Russia's invasion.

"While Russia continues to terrorise Ukrainian civilians with indiscriminate air strikes, the EU continues to show its solidarity with the Ukrainian people," Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said. Poland currently holds the rotating six-month EU Council presidency.

"We will continue to offer protection for millions of Ukrainian refugees for another year," he said, according to a Council statement.

Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic have taken in the majority of the 4.3 million Ukrainian refugees registered in the EU.

Under the temporary protection scheme, they are guaranteed rights of residence, access to the labour market and housing, medical assistance, social welfare assistance, and access to education for children.

The EU granted Ukrainian refugees temporary protections following the Kremlin's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The measure had been set to expire in March 2026.

The extension was backed with "unanimous support" at a meeting of EU interior ministers on Friday in Luxembourg.

The interior ministers also discussed how the program would eventually end.

"The Polish presidency also initiated discussion on a strategy to phase out temporary protection once a just peace is achieved," Siemoniak said.

"In the near future, we will work towards common, EU-wide solutions in this area, including in the context of returns to Ukraine."

While EU members were quick to welcome millions of Ukrainian refugees, public patience has started to wane as the war has entered its fourth year and peace efforts have so far failed.

In Germany, which hosts 1.2 million refugees from Ukraine — the most in the EU — anti-immigration sentiment has risen, while in neighboring Poland, the recently elected president said he wants to reduce refugee benefits.

Four people died and 11 others were seriously injured after a bus carrying a group of Ukrainians crashed on a motorway in western France on Friday.

Authorities in the department of Sarthe said 34 others had sustained minor injuries in the crash, which occurred on the route between Rennes and Le Mans, near the town of Degre.

"The coach, coming from Le Mans, was carrying adults and teenagers of Ukrainian nationality," Sarthe authorities said on X.

The road has closed off in both directions to allow emergency and rescue work to be carried out, the post added.

Forty-nine fire trucks were deployed to the scene.

France's Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot has described the crash as a "very serious accident" that had a "very heavy" human toll.

"I offer my deepest condolences to the families of the victims," Tabarot said.

No details about the identities of the coach's passengers or how the crash occurred have been released.

Ukrainian authorities on Friday said Russia had returned the bodies of 1,200 Ukrainian soldiers.

"According to the Russian side, the bodies belong to Ukrainian citizens, in particular military personnel," Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War (KSHPPV) said on Telegram.

The statement added that law enforcement investigators and "experts" would conduct tests to identify the repatriated bodies.

The bodies were returned as part of a deal this month in Istanbul that also saw the two sides agree to a large prisoner of war (POW) exchange.

The Istanbul talks provided for the return of the remains of more than 6,000 fallen soldiers from each side.

Dozens of POWs have been exchanged since. Around 1,200 soldiers were swapped on Thursday.

Also this week, Ukraine repatriated the bodies of 1,212 soldiers who died fighting the war, which began in February 2022 after Russia launched a full-scale invasion. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday announced that the European Union had sent a further €1 billion to Ukraine.

"We are with Ukraine for the long haul," von der Leyen said on X.

The latest loan, which von der Leyen explained would be repaid with interest from frozen Russian state assets being held in the EU, brings the bloc's support for Kyiv since the war began in 2022 to €150 billion.

The EU and its member states, including Germany, have sought to bolster their support in the form of more financial and military aid this year amid Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.

The €1 billion is part of a major aid package that was announced by the Group of Seven (G7).

The forum, which is made up of the world's leading democratic economies, is due to hold a leaders' summit in Canada on Sunday.

Von der Leyen also said on X that she will call on the EU's G7 partners "to keep coordinating strong support for Ukraine and hard-biting sanctions against Russia. Until the Kremlin stops this war."

The G7 has pledged to send approximately €45 billion in aid to Ukraine in the next two years, with the EU pitching in with €18.1 billion of that total.

The latest payment announced Friday brings the bloc's contributions to €7 billion so far this year.

A day after German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius' visit to Kyiv, which he said underscores Berlin's commitment to supporting Ukraine long-term, the war-torn country's European allies on Friday announced a new loan as part of a major G7 aid package.

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said the EU, which has now sent €150 billion to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022, is with Kyiv "for the long haul."

Meanwhile, Ukraine said it has received the bodies of 1,200 soldiers who were killed fighting the war against Russia.

The bodies were returned as part of a deal signed in Istanbul this month that also saw one of the largest exchanges of prisoners of war (POWs) of the three-year conflict.

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