European Commission Offers To Use Frozen Russian Assets For €140 Billion Loan To Ukraine Politico

A note sent by the European Commission to EU member state governments, obtained by the outlet ahead of today's meeting of ambassadors, lays the groundwork for next week's gathering of European leaders in Copenhagen.

Under the general outline of the loan, which has been informally discussed in recent weeks, Ukraine would only be required to repay the money once Russia ends the war and pays postwar reparations.

If that happens, the EU would return the funds to Euroclear, the Belgian financial institution holding the immobilized Russian assets.

The European Commission stated that the loan should be disbursed in tranches and used for defense cooperation as well as to support Ukraine's general budgetary needs. Brussels also proposed changing the rules for extending sanctions, abandoning the unanimity principle in favor of qualified majority voting to reduce the risk of a Hungarian veto and the potential return of assets to Russia.

As reported, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz backed the idea of a reparations-based loan in an article for the Financial Times, adding that in his view, the loan should be used exclusively to finance military aid.

The International Monetary Fund has preliminarily assessed Ukraine's unmet need for international financing in 2026–2029 at $65 billion, twice the government's earlier estimates.

Photo: DANIEL KALKER / DPA

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