EU leaders agreed a $105 billion loan to Ukraine after efforts to leverage frozen Russian assets in order to help Kyiv stumbled.
The bloc has debated using the $246 billion in Russian funds for months, but Belgium, where most of the money is held, was concerned about financial and security repercussions, and demanded guarantees from other EU countries, which they rejected. Still, the loan provides vital cash for Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that without it, drone production would be severely curtailed.
The collapse of the assets program is a blow to EU leaders who backed it, but the new solution is better, the Financial Times’ chief foreign affairs commentator argued: It is durable, repeatable, and legally tested.