News | Russia-Ukraine war
EU summit on knife-edge over plan to fund Ukraine using Russian assets
The proposal centres on whether the EU can use about $246bn in Russian central bank frozen assets.
European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels to decide on a contentious proposal to use nearly $250bn in frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, amid deep divisions among member states.
The vote centres on whether the EU can use about 210 billion euros ($246bn) in Russian central bank assets frozen within the bloc as the basis for a loan to Kyiv over the next two years that Moscow would eventually pay back in projected war reparations, which the Kremlin rejects.
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The proposal comes as United States financial support for Ukraine dries up under the administration of President Donald Trump, and EU national budgets are already under strain.
Without additional EU funding, Ukraine could run out of money by April next year, a scenario EU officials fear would lead to a military defeat and increase the risk of Russian influence in Europe and feared spillover of the conflict across Europe’s borders.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that a failure to finance Kyiv would embolden Russia and raise the risk of new wars, including on European soil.
It comes after the European Commission put forward a backup plan under which the EU would raise the funds itself to lend to Ukraine, with the option shelved for now amid opposition from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who would be expected to vote against the measure, which requires unanimous approval from all 27 member states.
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