Two-year deal will cover most of Ukraine’s needs, but will be secured against EU borrowing rather than Russian assets
European Union leaders have decided to provide a massive interest-free loan to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, after failing to agree on using frozen Russian assets, diplomats said in the early hours of Friday.
“We have a deal. Decision to provide €90bn ($106bn) of support to Ukraine for 2026-27 approved. We committed, we delivered,” EU Council president Antonio Costa said in a post on social media.
With public finances across the EU already strained by high debt levels, the European Commission had proposed using frozen Russian central bank assets to secure a huge loan to Kyiv, with joint borrowing against the EU budget as a second option.
I’m somewhat disappointed that they could not find a way to use the agressor’s own assets.
Perhaps it’s true that laws would have to be changed and some treaties (with Russia) should be exited from. I hope this provides the incentive to change them and do that.
I think it should be a feature of international law: if one tries to conquer a country, one should be prepared to have assets confiscated and given to the target of agression to help them defend against it.
We’re coming up on the 4 year anniversary of the invasion. If Europe wanted to use these assets they would have done so already. The willingness just isn’t there.
I’ve been wondering if Ukraine can’t sue Russia in the ICJ for the damage Russia has caused to Ukraine, and claim these frozen assets as part of that.