Lucy Hough

It was produced by Bryony Moore.

The senior producer was Ryan Mangoban and the lead producer was Zoe Hedge.

The deadlock is over as the European Union finally agrees a 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine and a massive package of sanctions against Russia as Prince Harry makes a surprise visit to Kyiv.

Could this finally be a moment of optimism for Ukraine?

From The Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hough.

Well, dialing in from Kyiv is our senior international correspondent, Luke Harding.

Luke, it's great to see you.

Thanks for coming back on the show.

So the last time we spoke was in February, which around the time of the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

And the picture, as per your reporting, was incredible.

pretty bleak.

It was extremely cold and there was a sense that Ukraine wasn't making much progress in this kind of grinding war of attrition.

But the picture is now quite different, isn't it?

There's been this approval by the European Union of a massive loan to Ukraine, but also Russia's progress on the battlefield seems to have stalled.

What's it feeling like from where you are right at the heart of things?

Yes, it's two things that have been agreed, isn't it?

It's this 90 billion euro loan, as you say, which will have a very material impact on Ukraine's war effort.

But also there's a big package of sanctions against Russia.

So the response from Zelensky presumably is very positive to that, given, as you say, there's been such a standoff in this bloc by Hungary until Viktor Orban was ousted from power earlier this month.

And this sort of increased sense of European solidarity as it responds to the Iran war, but obviously, as you say, towards Ukraine.