(MENAFN- UkrinForm) Ukrinform reports this, with reference to Reuters, citing a senior European official.

According to the article, EU finance ministers are meeting in Brussels after the bloc's leaders pledged on October 23 to cover Ukraine's needs for 2026-2027, and asked the European Commission to prepare options on how to do that.

The EU official close to the talks said the Commission's options paper was not ready yet, but there were only two realistic ways to provide the EUR 130-140 billion ($152-163 billion) Ukraine is likely to need.

One was to use the frozen Russian assets, as proposed by the Commission.

The other was for EU governments to borrow the funds on the market, but this would involve paying interest.

Most of the Russian assets frozen in Europe are on the accounts of Belgian securities depository Euroclear. Since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, almost all of the securities have matured and become cash.

The option involving frozen assets would mean the EU would replace the Russian cash on Euroclear accounts with zero-coupon AAA bonds issued by the European Commission.

The cash would then go to Kyiv, which would only repay the loan if it eventually gets war reparations from Russia, effectively making the loan a grant and making Russian reparations available before the war ends. The option is called the Reparations Loan, because it would be linked to Russia paying reparations.

Under that arrangement, the only financial contribution on the part of European Union governments would be to guarantee the Commission loans issued for Euroclear.

Read also: United States support EU's plan to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine – Reuters

As Ukrinform reported, Ukraine's Deputy Finance Minister Oleksandr Kava said during the Kyiv Security Forum session on the energy and economic situation that the uncovered deficit of Ukraine's state budget for 2026-2027 reaches 60 billion dollars.

Photo: pixabay

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