US EditionEU Agrees on €90B Loan to Ukraine, Fails to Use Russian Assets
- After marathon talks in Brussels, EU leaders agreed on Friday to provide a 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine for 2026-27, following urgent discussions about Kyiv's cash needs.
- The EU estimates Ukraine needs an extra 135 billion euros to stay afloat and faces a cash crunch starting in April, while the IMF projects 137 billion euros for 2026-27, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to demand a year-end decision.
- The number one option had been to tap about 200 billion euros of frozen Russian assets, but Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever demanded liability guarantees and Russia's Central Bank sued Euroclear.
- Agreeing a compromise, leaders chose joint EU borrowing backed by the EU budget and headroom, granting Ukraine a zero-interest loan repayable only after reparations; Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic secured exemptions.
- EU leaders noted they reserve the right to use immobilised Russian assets to repay the loan, while avoiding a legal precedent, as `This sends a clear signal from Europe to Putin: This war will not be worth it,` Merz said.
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363 Articles
Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic do not participate in this.
EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Maternova believes that the decision to provide Ukraine with a loan of 90 billion euros, adopted during the EU summit in Brussels, will preserve the financial stability of the state over the next two years.
EU Leaders Agree on $105 Billion Loan to Fund Ukraine Without Using Russian Frozen Assets
The European Union will borrow money for a 90 billion euro ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine to fund the country’s defense over the next two years, rather than use frozen Russian assets, the 27-nation bloc said on Dec. 19. Member states also gave consent for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, to keep working on a so-called reparations loan based on Moscow’s immobilized assets, but were unable to get that scheme off the ground for no…
Although the EU blockade's plan to use Russian assets for Ukraine's financing has failed, Russian President Vladimir Putin has kept EU leaders critical of this attempt, reports Politico.
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