Ukraine deal: EU leaders agree €90bn loan, but without use of frozen Russian assets

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

EU leaders have pledged a €90bn loan for Ukraine to meet urgent financial needs, but failed to agree on the preferred option for many of securing that loan against Russia’s frozen assets in the bloc.

After talks ended in the early hours of Friday, the president of the European Council, António Costa, told reporters: “We committed and we delivered.” He said EU leaders had approved a decision to make a €90bn loan to Ukraine for the next two years backed by the EU budget, which Kyiv would repay only once Russia pays reparations.
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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote on X that the deal “is significant support that truly strengthens our resilience”, adding: “It is important that Russian assets remain immobilised and that Ukraine has received a financial security guarantee for the coming years.”

EU leaders entered the summit on Thursday with many wanting to secure the urgently needed loan against some of Russia’s €210bn frozen assets on the continent. But the plan fell on the demand of Belgium, which hosts 88% of the Russian funds in the EU, to have unlimited budget guarantees from other member states if Moscow won a successful claim for damages.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/19/ukraine-deal-latest-europe-leaders-loan-zelenskyy

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Fairly weak stuff. The EU daren't use the Russian assets; indicating they think Trump wouldn't allow it, and that they can't oppose him on this. It's under half the value of the assets - the loan keeps Ukraine going, but seems unlikely to be enough to help Ukraine win, rather than just survive. And 3 EU countries - Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - just opted out of the loan altogether.

I suspect that they won't be able to make Russia pay reparations in the end (Trump will make sure they won't), so Ukraine won't have to repay this.