Ukraine needs an urgent financial lifeline too stay afloat. With the loss of American aid, following Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House last January, the support of the country invaded by Russia depends fundamentally on its European allies. For this reason,and with a harsh winter ahead,Brussels is now trying to come up with a formula to prevent Ukraine’s bankruptcy.
the idea gaining the most consensus is to send Kyiv, in the form of an interest-free loan, 140 billion euros taken from Russian sovereign assets – funds frozen in the EU due to sanctions against the Kremlin.
In a context of tight budgets, using that money is the best and fastest option for most Member States.But not for Belgium,where the financial services entity that houses the Russian money is located and without whose agreement the proposal is unachievable.
Its prime minister, the Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever, has warned that using these funds could be perceived as an “illegal expropriation” and lead to a euro crisis. “The ‘repair loan’ plan [for Ukraine] would entail multiple dangers not only for my own country,as it is where most of the Russian sovereign assets have been tied up,but also for the EU and all our individual Member States,” says Bart De Wever in a letter sent on Thursday to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen,in which he speaks of fears of Russian retaliation.
“Words are cheap, but aid to Ukraine will be regrettably expensive,” he adds in the letter, to which EL PAÍS has had access and which represents a gigantic obstacle to the support plan for Kyiv. De Wever also claims that giving the money to Ukraine would remove an element of pressure on the Kremlin and harm the chances of a peace agreement.
Belgium’s notice,which comes just weeks before European leaders are due to decide on economic support for Ukraine,has put the European Commission on high alert. The Community Executive – which has launched several options documents to try to convince partners that the wisest option is to use Russian sovereign assets – is expected to present this Monday a legal proposal with which it hopes to appease Belgium and achieve a clear path forward.
“It is about building a secure architecture for the use of that money in the form of a ‘reconstruction loan’ that reassures the Belgian government and allows Ukraine to recieve the funds,” explains a high-ranking community source working on the extremely sensitive matter.
Ukraine needs about 136 billion in 2025 and 2026 to stay afloat and continue fighting the russian invader, according to European calculations. The country is heading towards the fourth anniversary of the large-scale war launched by Vladimir Putin, and its coffers are seriously depleted. If it does not receive an injection of funds before the end of the first quarter of 2026, it might potentially be forced to make a huge blow to its public spending and leave two million public employees without salaries and almost another million without social assistance, according to data that the Ukrainian Executive has transmitted to its European allies.
The pressure on the EU is enormous. The president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, has assured that at the next summit on December 18 and 19 the leaders will not leave the table until they find a financial solution for kyiv.It is not being easy at all and the delay is damaging the credibility of the Union, which has promised to help Ukraine as long as necessary, diplomatic sources agree. In October, leaders failed to find a solution.
Brussels had already…