EU officials back frozen assets plan to help Kyiv

The European Commission yesterday said it would move ahead with plans to fund Ukraine with a loan based on Russia's frozen assets.

- Jennifer Rankin Brussels Shaun Walker Warsaw

But in a concession to concerns raised by Belgium, which hosts most of the reserves, the EU executive has also proposed another option: a loan based on common borrowing.

The commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the two proposals would ensure Ukraine had “the means to defend [itself] and take forward peace negotiations from a position of strength”.

EU leaders will be asked this month to decide which option to pursue to help Kyiv tackle a looming funding crunch with no end to the war in sight.

A Kremlin official yesterday said talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, had been “positive” but there was little sign Moscow was ready to compromise on its maximalist goals.

Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's foreign minister, urged Putin to "stop wasting the world's time". His Estonian counterpart, Margus Tsahkna, said it was "pretty obvious" the Russian president was not interested in peace.

"What we see is that Putin has not changed any course. He's pushing more aggressively on the battlefield," added the foreign minister.

Having been left on the sidelines of the White House effort to push through a peace deal, European leaders, have been focusing instead on the need to plug the gap in Ukraine's finances as the war grinds into a fourth winter.

Von der Leyen outlined a €90bn (£79bn) plan, which she estimated would cover two-thirds of Kyiv's funding needs for the next two years.