Summit divided on idea of loan secured against Russian assets, as Belgium seeks guarantees if scheme goes wrong
EU leaders are racing to secure a funding deal for Ukraine that has been cast as a choice between “money today or blood tomorrow”, but Belgium continues to oppose a loan secured against Russia’s frozen assets.
At a summit billed as make or break, EU leaders are discussing an unprecedented move to tap some of Russia’s €210bn sovereign assets frozen in the bloc days after the full-scale invasion of 2022.
Under the scheme, the EU would provide Kyiv with a €90bn loan to help keep Ukraine in the fight, as Russia ekes out gains on the battlefields.
Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said leaders had a simple choice: “Either money today or blood tomorrow.”
I don’t think anyone expects there to be less bloodshed or an end to violence. Yes, I do quite honestly want “the right people” to be the ones to die in this war. Are random Russian conscripts at fault for this? No. Are they in someone else’s country, with guns? Yes.
The Ukrainians owe Russia nothing, and pretending that if we tie their hands and hamstring them and make them less effective that this is a BETTER outcome because there is “less bloodshed” is a fiction. One that I think you are all too aware of.
Where are the calls for Russia to lay down arms and retreat? Russia are the only ones who can end this war tomorrow. I will continue to support getting Ukraine to tomorrow, until they do
That’s right there in the headline. “Money today or blood tomorrow”
Brother, its all over the EU. But its a hard sell for a country that’s gaining territory in the face of a fracturing and deteriorating coalition of (increasingly il)liberal western states.