The bloc’s executive arm now has a mandate to explore how to do this. And for now, the funds unlocked by the loan will be welcomed in Kyiv as it battles to hold off Russian battlefield gains while negotiating with Washington over a peace plan to end the war.

Hundreds of tractors converged on Brussels on Thursday in a show of farmers' anger at the EU's planned trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur -- whose fate hung in the balance as summit talks opened in the Belgian capital.