New Delhi, June 27 -- The European Union has disbursed the first 3 billion-euro ($3.4 billion) tranche of a 90 billion-euro ($101 billion) loan to Ukraine, the country's prime minister announced Thursday at the opening of a conference on Ukraine's post-war recovery in Poland.

The conference, attended by key European leaders including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is both a fundraising forum and a message to Russia that Ukraine's Western supporters are in it for a long haul.

"We are forced to innovate to survive and this has become our superpower," Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said, adding that Ukraine was grateful for the support promised to her war-battered nation....