Volodymyr Zelensky has called on EU leaders at a crunch summit urgently to agree to a multi-billion euro loan in frozen Russian money to fund Ukraine’s military and economic needs.
Ukraine is months from running out of cash and Zelensky said without an injection by spring Ukraine “will have to reduce production of drones”.
Most of Russia’s €210bn (£185bn; $245bn) worth of assets in the EU are held by Belgium-based organisation Euroclear. Until now Belgium and some other member states have said they are opposed to using the cash as a “reparations loan”.
Russia has warned EU leaders not to use its money, but Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said they had to “rise to this occasion”.
The Brussels summit comes at a pivotal moment in the war and Russia has filed a lawsuit against Euroclear in a Moscow court in a bid to get its money back.
Zelensky said Ukraine was definitely facing a 45-50bn [euro] deficit next year, and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed “we will not leave the summit without a solution”. One European government official described being “cautiously optimistic, not overly optimistic” that a deal would be agreed.
All eyes are on Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who told the Belgian parliament on Thursday that if everything was nailed down and shared by the rest of the EU, “then we’ll jump into the abyss together with the rest of the Europeans and hope the parachute holds us”.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has said a deal is closer than ever to end the war – which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
US and Russian officials are due to meet in Miami this weekend for further talks on a peace plan, a White House official has told AFP news agency. It is thought Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev will talk to Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Miami.
Ukrainian officials are also heading to the US, and President Zelensky, who is in Brussels, said Kyiv needed the money, either to support its army if the war continued, or to direct the funding entirely for recovery: “It’s moral, it’s fair and it’s legal, confirmed by the expertise of many, many professionals.”
Russia has not yet responded to the latest peace proposals, but the Kremlin has stressed that plans for a European-led multinational force for Ukraine supported by the US would not be acceptable.
President Vladimir Putin made his feelings towards Europe clear on Wednesday, when he said the continent was in a state of “total degradation” and that “European piglets” – a derogatory description of Ukraine’s European allies – were hoping to profit from Russia’s collapse.
Original story by BBC News
