Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged EU leaders to use Russia’s frozen assets to fund Ukraine’s defence “as soon as possible”, as summit talks on the issue of a reparations loan got bogged down.
Speaking to EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, Zelenskyy called for a decision to be made to use Russian assets fully to defend his country against Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
“Anyone who delays this decision is not only limiting our defence but also slowing down your own progress,” he told EU leaders, promising that Ukraine would spend a lot of money buying European weapons. “The time to act on Russian assets is now and I urge for your full support.”
EU leaders are discussing plans to fund a loan for Ukraine secured on Russia’s central bank assets, which were frozen soon after the full-scale invasion, in the hope of adding to pressure on Putin to end the war.
The European Commission, which has sketched out the idea of a €140bn interest-free loan, could be instructed to draw up a detailed legal text with the aim of finalising the plan by the end of the year if leaders agree.
The Kremlin says the scheme is theft and has vowed to pursue any individual or country deemed to have taken Russian money.
Leaders still need the agreement of Belgium, which hosts €183bn of Russian central bank assets at Euroclear in Brussels, 86% of all Russian state assets in the EU and two-thirds of the worldwide total.
Arriving at the summit, the Belgian prime minister, Bart De Wever, threatened to oppose the plan without guarantees that the rest of the EU would cover the cost if Russia came looking for its money.
“If you want to do this, we will have to do this all together. We want guarantees if the money has to be paid back that every member state will chip in. The consequences cannot only be for Belgium,” he said.
To win Belgian support, EU leaders are to promise “burden sharing and coordination with G7 partners”, according to a draft text that has yet to be agreed. About one-third of Russian state assets are held outside the EU, including in Japan (€28bn), the UK (€27bn), Canada (€15bn) and the US (€4bn). While the UK and Canada are expected to make similar moves, EU officials are less hopeful about the US, which holds a small but symbolic amount of Russian state assets.
Even if Belgium gives the green light for further work on a reparations loan, many questions will remain unresolved for weeks. The loan plan depends on EU unanimity to keep Russian assets frozen for a long time. Hungary’s Russia-friendly government has frequently delayed EU sanctions and although it has never dared to block them, its anti-Ukraine rhetoric raises questions about its future support.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, skipped the discussions on Ukraine to attend events in Budapest commemorating the 1956 Hungarian revolution, which was crushed by Soviet repression. As has become customary, the EU is likely to adopt a statement on Ukraine – including the loan – without Hungary’s support.
Earlier in the day, the EU agreed its 19th package of sanctions against Russia, targeting liquefied natural gas for the first time. The move came soon after the US imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, the first restrictive measures passed by the Trump administration.
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Even as wrangling over the reparations loan continued, leaders expressed confidence of agreement. “Today we will take the political decision to ensure the financial needs of Ukraine from 2026 to 2027,” the European Council president, António Costa, told reporters, describing the work remaining as “technicalities”. He went on: “The most important is the political decision and the clear message that we are sending to Russia.”
Latvia’s prime minister, Evika Siliņa, said an agreement on the loan would strengthen Zelenskyy in any peace talks with Putin. “I believe [Zelenskyy] will be much stronger to enter those negotiations if those negotiations take place,” she said.
Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said his government supported the plan and did not see any implications for Irish neutrality. “This cannot be a repeating cycle where … big countries feel, like Russia, they can go in and destroy a place and expect other people to pay for the reconstruction afterwards,” he said.
Zelenskyy expressed hope that the US would eventually supply long-range Tomahawk missiles. “It was like sanctions: before it was unbelievable and now we see the decisions on these energy sanctions, which are very important,” he said.
But he downplayed reports of a 12-point peace plan that emerged earlier this week, suggesting it was the work of “some very good friends” seeking to pre-empt “some plan from Russia” promoted by another country that he did not name. The plan, which was first reported by Bloomberg, called for a ceasefire, prisoner exchanges and the creation of a peace board chaired by Donald Trump – taking inspiration from the US administration’s Gaza plan.
Zelenskyy said Russia showed no sign of wanting to stop the war, citing the recent bombing of a kindergarten. “More pressure on Russia and they will sit and speak and I think this is the plan,” he said.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
