- 3 months ago
EU releases €3 billion loan for Ukraine as US-Iran talks remain fragile
Ukraine has received 3.2 billion euros as the first disbursement under the European Union's 90 billion euro support loan. Meanwhile, an Iranian diplomat rejects UN inspections of Iran's nuclear sites, saying such visits can only come after a final deal.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/06/26/eu-releases-3-billion-loan-for-ukraine-as-us-iran-talks-remain-fragile
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Ukraine has received 3.2 billion euros as the first disbursement under the European Union's 90 billion euro support loan. Meanwhile, an Iranian diplomat rejects UN inspections of Iran's nuclear sites, saying such visits can only come after a final deal.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/06/26/eu-releases-3-billion-loan-for-ukraine-as-us-iran-talks-remain-fragile
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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00:14good morning it's friday the 26th of june you're watching euronews and this is europe today welcome
00:23to the program i'm stefan grobe coming up solidarity with ukraine the country has received 3.2 billion
00:31euros as the first disbursement under the european union's 90 billion euro support loan that was
00:38announced by eu commission president osola von der leyen at the ukraine recovery conference in gdansk
00:43the announcement marks a turning point in a six-month political struggle to get the loan
00:48off the ground we'll have euronews editor maria tadeo reporting from gdansk conflicting messages
00:55the head of the united nations nuclear agency signaled that iranian nuclear enrichment sites
01:01would be visited by their inspectors a key component in the interim deal between washington and tehran
01:07but an iranian diplomat promptly rejected this saying such a visit can only come after a final deal
01:14a denial that highlighted the precariousness of the ongoing talks we'll speak to a former iranian
01:20negotiator catastrophe in venezuela following the devastating earthquakes in that south american
01:28country the international community has mobilized to provide urgent humanitarian assistance countries
01:35from the western hemisphere the european union and even china offered help after two major earthquakes
01:41struck west of karakas the number of victims is still unclear but could reach hundreds
01:47if not more we'll get an update from the eu commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis
01:52management hadja labib and what happened at the world cup last night i'll fill you in but first
01:59the ukraine recovery conference widely viewed as europe's biggest reconstruction project since world war
02:06two kiev expects to sign agreements worth more than 1.5 billion euros during the conference with deals
02:13expected to include projects and housing infrastructure and regional recovery efforts needs are estimated at
02:21hundreds of billions of euro and span virtually every sector of the economy from energy and transportation
02:28to defense manufacturing industrial production digitalization and urban redevelopment new news editor
02:36maria tadeo is in gdansk and sends this report
02:42well yes stefan good morning and we're here in poland for the second day of the ukraine reconstruction
02:47conference this is a conference that's been running now for a number of years but in 2022 fundamentally
02:53changed and it became very much a business conference about the reconstruction and the
02:58future business opportunities in ukraine the goal of this conference is to bring together
03:02investors foreign capital and get them to put money in ukraine this year however far from being just
03:09a business conference has been totally eclipsed by the politics and that diplomatic spat between poland
03:15and ukraine just days before the conference started the polish president nawrowski stripped took away
03:21a medal from president zelensky the highest order of merit from poland after a military unit in
03:27ukraine was renamed the ukrainian insurgent army for the polish president nawrowski he said this was an
03:33insult and he had damaged and hurt the memory from the second world war of many poles who were killed
03:38by
03:39this particular unit the president of ukraine then responded back saying that this has nothing to do
03:43with the polish people also said that many other units had been renamed in this war and suggested that
03:49it's being weaponized for political reasons in poland looking into an election next year that meant
03:54that yesterday volodymyr zelensky did not participate in this conference he skipped the opening ceremony
04:00there was however a delegation led by the prime minister of ukraine in the meantime the prime
04:06minister of this country donald tusk trying to pacify both sides saying that this is really
04:10now the moment for both poland and ukraine to respect each other and be mutually respectful
04:16nonetheless beyond the politics there were announcements the european union announced that
04:20it will now pay off about three billion euros from the 90 billion euro loan that ukraine should
04:25receive from eu member states and the united kingdom also announced a package of 290 million pounds
04:31mostly focused on the energy sector and to that point i spoke with david lammy the deputy prime
04:37minister of the united kingdom and i asked him about the future relationship of the uk with the european
04:43union when it comes to security defense g7 and the upcoming nato meeting let's take a look
04:51david lammy thank you so much for joining us on euronews today the uk is announcing a financial
04:55contribution to ukraine 219 million why make this announcement now is it a reflection that you
05:01believe dynamics on the battlefield are changing and ukraine can still win it as you know the united
05:08kingdom has stood with ukraine right from the beginning and we pledged some time ago that for
05:14every year this war continues we will be with ukraine politically economically and military our
05:20announcement today of course comes on the back of successes on the battlefield a strong and good g7
05:28which was a strong statement from the united states as well as european partners on the situation and a
05:35desire to support ukraine until we get that peace and sir you mentioned the g7 there was a statement
05:41with language that objectively was much stronger than a lot of people believe uh would end up in
05:47the declaration and there's also a form of unanimity now with the united states seemingly also endorsing
05:52the language do you get a sense that both the uk and the europeans you've managed to sway the us
05:58president and now he agrees with you ukraine is in better shape than it seemed at the start of the
06:02year
06:02i think we'll see in nato in the coming weeks that the united states is seeing europeans step up
06:08in terms of our commitments to defense and to spend across europe i think we must recognize the progress
06:16that we're seeing from ukraine on the battlefield we also see in russia recession beginning to bite
06:25um a huge casualty loss now of soldiers well over a million uh dying uh and so i think we
06:33also recognize
06:34that this is the moment to keep ukraine in the fight to increase um uh our our suppression if you
06:42like of uh what the russians are doing and to support ukraine to the very end and you have one
06:47of
06:47the best intelligence services in the world so you would know what those raids on the ground
06:51uh look like but i have to ask you on the sanctions front because that was also uh meaningful coming
06:56out of the g7 the idea that sanctions would get tighter there was a concern because of the energy
07:01crisis that there could be relief on russian energy is that changing are you making plans to really go
07:07rough again on the sanctions with the rest of the g7 we're really clear we have ramped up our sanctions
07:12you saw also the introduction from the uk uh of the russian shadow fleet just a few weeks ago are
07:20six
07:21packages sanctions more to come uh i was very clear when i was foreign secretary that we would continue
07:27to bear down uh on russian aggression russian money dirty money that's financing this war and we're
07:35really pleased that our european partners continue to do that as well and we have also seen i think
07:41since the elections in hungary a more united front right across europe certainly on the sanctions
07:47you mentioned nato the summit is really around the corner can you carry that momentum into anchor or do
07:52you worry there's a scenario too in which the president will say you didn't really help in iran
07:57i'm not going to help any further i think that we will see that momentum into anchor and look i
08:03think
08:03it is important to recognize that european bases were being used certainly here uh uh in uh in poland
08:12in germany in the united kingdom uh to support efforts in the strait of her moves we've had the coalition
08:19of
08:19the willing as well that the uk and france have spoke sponsored once the war uh is fully over and
08:27we've
08:27seen demining in the strait of her moves so i think for all of those reasons i expect to see
08:32a
08:33successful nature conference so you don't see possible backlash and just a final question
08:38of course the uk is now in a moment of transition politically there will be a new prime minister
08:42is there a concern or was there a message that you gave to your european and ukrainian allies that
08:47the fundamentals of foreign policy of the united kingdom will not change when it comes to security
08:51when it comes to ukraine there's absolutely good question of a change in um in in foreign policy
08:58we have remained committed to ukraine through successive uh governments and that will continue
09:04and we have been absolutely clear reconnected with the global community a european reset all of that
09:10continues um uh despite there's no rupture that was your message rush is not a word that's ever been
09:17i think that was used by the canadians it's certainly not been used by the uk so you will
09:21maintain that line uh david lamming thank you so much thank you very much indeed thank you
09:28maria tadeo they are reporting from gdansk thank you very much now technical talks between the u.s
09:34and iran are expected to resume in geneva next week designed to reach a permanent deal to end the war
09:41the negotiations are expected to focus on iran's nuclear program our correspondent merit green jones
09:46talked to a former spokesman for iran's nuclear negotiating team sayed hussein musavian and started
09:53by asking him whether the talks are really an opportunity to open a new chapter in the relationship
09:59between the u.s and iran whether i see opportunity or not i think this is perhaps the the most
10:08important
10:09opportunity iran and the u.s they have because of two issues first issue is that now they are negotiating
10:16at the very very high level actually the second rank or of the two countries and the second important
10:24issue is that they have direct negotiations not only on nuclear but on broader regional issues on the
10:33nuclear issue specifically it's likely to become a core issue in these talks and do you believe
10:40iranian negotiators will come to the table ready to make compromises with flexibility for example do
10:46you believe they'll allow inspectors from the international atomic energy agency to come on site
10:52immediately on iranian nuclear sites first of all uh with jcpoa iran practically showed its readiness
11:01iaea had full access and for three years iaa repeatedly was able to say iranian nuclear program is
11:10peaceful therefore iran already showed such a good will now when you are talking about iranian giving
11:18access to the iaa to iranian nuclear sites yes i believe they will give but the problem is not on
11:26the iranian side this is for the first time during the history uh of non-proliferation uh two nuclear
11:34powers they have have attacked a non-nuclear weapon state facilities under the safeguard agreement of
11:42between iran and iaa iaa atomic energy agency does not have any protocol to inspect the bombed nuclear
11:54facilities i think first iran should agree i believe they would agree and then the iaea would have to
12:02have an official a protocol enabling them to go to visit the bombed nuclear facilities there is also a
12:11very complex regional picture do you expect iran to try and tie the fate of lebanon to this broader
12:21deal and do you expect the u.s to be receptive to that i think if there is going to
12:26be a broad
12:28sustainable deal iran and the u.s negotiators they will have to agree on three major issues regional
12:35issues one would be between iran and the u.s bilateral and regional the second should be about iran and
12:43the
12:43u.s arab allies in the region the persian gulf the stability of energy the strait of hormoz uh about
12:50maritime security in the persian gulf and the third is about iran and israel i think the u.s is
12:58in good
12:59position to be a mediator for iran and israel to end decades of mutual security military existential threats
13:14american jones speaking to sayed hossein musavian and now to the horrifying earthquakes that shook
13:20venezuela yesterday more than 10 000 people have been reported missing after the area around the
13:26capital caracas was hit by two strong horror movie tremors as one witness described it experts are
13:34predicting the number of people killed will rise residents posted videos of collapsing buildings and
13:40screaming survivors ducking for cover the international community acted immediately and offered wide
13:46ranging assistance for more on this let's bring in the eu commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis
13:52management hadja labib who joins us from budapest good morning commissioner it's great to have you on
13:58the show good morning thank you for having me do you have a sense of the magnitude of the disaster
14:07yet and what is the eu doing to help in terms of money and in terms of manpower
14:16yeah um we have proactively entered in contact with the venezuelan authorities to propose our
14:24humanitarian aids you have to know that we are already on the ground with our partners with our office
14:29and so we activate our uh copernicus satellite to assess the magnitude of the damages it's still
14:38monitoring and uh we were already uh with our humanitarian aids providing 52 million of humanitarian
14:47support for only this year and of course when the back-to-back earthquakes happened uh we proposed to step
14:56up
14:56our community our humanitarian aid seven countries have already responded with search and rescue team
15:03so venezuela activated our uh solidarity european solidarity mechanism which is the uh civil protection
15:10mechanism uh spain italy uh republic czech republic um luxembourg the netherlands germany and france
15:20uh proposed search and rescue teams uh uh mobile uh community telecommunication advices and and so on
15:28so we are already on the ground and uh many countries are ready to step up commissioner venezuela has faced
15:36years of economic and political turmoil how do those existing vulnerabilities complicate the delivery
15:43of humanitarian aid and the assessment of needs on the ground
15:50yeah exactly that's uh the situation uh that we are facing today in venezuela you have to know that
15:57seven more than seven million people depend on humanitarian aid uh and so the situation was already
16:05uh severe and uh we are uh monitoring the situation right now and expecting uh some heavy rains
16:12and that's why uh and that's why uh we are really um uh on the hurry to save as many
16:20lives as we can
16:21that's why our first response were um search and rescue team because we need uh to remove the concrete
16:29and and to save as much as life as weak as we can in this kind of situation every every
16:36minute counts
16:37uh but as you rightly say the situation the economic situation and humanitarian situation was
16:43already uh dramatic all right you commissioner hadja labib on eu assistance for venezuela thank you so
16:50much for your time this morning madam the extreme heat that is baking europe these days is melting national
16:57records france and belgium endured their hottest day since records began britain and spain hit new
17:04records for any day in june experts speak about a heat dome driven furnace for the second time
17:11in two months now heat domes are persistent high pressure systems which act like a lid on a pot
17:17trapping hot air and pushing it downward how do people cope with the sweltering heat
17:22adnan leal braced the temperatures and looked around in brussels extreme heat has placed parts of belgium
17:30on red alert it's too much uh warm with temperatures reaching up to 40 degrees are you prepared to
17:36survive 40 degrees in brussels the alert is at the second highest level and schools are adapting their
17:42activities to cope with the heat wave but how are people outside coping with it i bought myself a lighter
17:48clothes and then trees and then we have the fan very nice drinking a lot of water experts say taking
17:55small precautions can already make a big difference heat related mortality has gone up 30 percent in the last
18:0120 years in europe we can reduce that mortality by developing updates and actions at the personal
18:08level there is a clear need to develop strategies to cope with these extremes they have the potential
18:14to be pillars temperature are going up and we continue to go up um given if we were to stop
18:19or emission
18:20tomorrow which we are not records breaking shouldn't be a breaking news because in a sense it's a
18:26natural consequence of the fact that the world is warming up
18:31adnan leal reporting from brussels and now the world cup with the second final match day of the group stage
18:43ecuador stunned already qualified germany with a two-to-one comeback win
18:47to qualify for the knockout stages germany scored after 100 seconds but then it was game over for the
18:53four-time champion an eye-popping victory for ecuador that didn't score a single goal in their first two
18:59matches in the other game of group e ivory coast beat curacao two to zero and booked their ticket for
19:05the next round in group f the netherlands sealed a comfortable three-to-one victory against tunisia
19:11cruising to the knockout phase oranje's victory means they're facing morocco on tuesday which
19:16promises to be a shocker for tunisia it was time to leave the big stage after a spirited performance
19:22in defeat in the other game of that group japan finished second behind the netherlands after a
19:28two-to-two draw against sweden which scored a second half stunner to secure a last 32 spot as they
19:34came
19:34from behind to earn a point against japan then in group d turkey against the united states a game about
19:40nothing the turks were already eliminated and americans already qualified yet turkey beat the u.s
19:463-2 finishing a disappointing world cup on a somewhat positive note and the americans dream
19:52might be a bit broken as they are back on planet earth finally paraguay versus australia 0-0 do you
20:00have anything else to say on this no australia advances paraguay maybe six games on the menu tonight
20:07and early tomorrow morning among them the shocker norway france europeu against spain and new zealand
20:12versus belgium that does it for us today thanks for joining us this morning if you want to continue
20:18the conversation send us your feedback via email to europe today at euronews.com for all the latest
20:24news of the day stay tuned to euronews and euronews.com i'm stefan grobe take care and see you soon
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