{"id":11820,"date":"2025-12-18T08:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T09:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/?p=11820"},"modified":"2025-12-22T20:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:02:13","slug":"eu-leaders-fail-to-agree-on-stealing-russian-assets-for-ukraine-as-it-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/18\/eu-leaders-fail-to-agree-on-stealing-russian-assets-for-ukraine-as-it-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"EU leaders fail to agree on stealing Russian assets for Ukraine: As it happened"},"content":{"rendered":"
Moscow has condemned all proposals to use its sovereign funds to support Ukraine as \u201ctheft\u201d and warned of legal retaliation<\/strong><\/p>\n EU leaders have failed to back a controversial plan to steal sovereign Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s economy and military.<\/p>\n Following a divisive 16-hour summit in Brussels on Thursday, no backing was secured for the plan which Moscow has denounced as outright theft and warned would trigger legal retaliation.<\/p>\n The bloc’s leaders were locked into talks that went into the night, after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanded that nobody be allowed to leave until financing for Ukraine has been secured. Ukraine faces an estimated $160 billion fiscal shortfall over the next two years.<\/p>\n The talks reportedly hung on the bloc’s unwillingness to provide an uncapped financial backstop – an unlimited IOU – to Belgium, and potentially the other EU countries holding Russian funds, when Moscow seeks legal redress.<\/p>\n Bloc members have long debated tapping Russian central bank funds estimated at around €210 billion ($246 billion) as part of a ‘reparations loan’ to Kiev (to understand why that is a misnomer and part of EU spin, read here<\/a>) which it will have to repay only if Russia agrees to pay war damages.<\/p>\n The idea, pushed by EU chief von der Leyen, has faced mounting resistance from several member states, which argue the move risks undermining the bloc’s legal foundations, damaging confidence in the Eurozone, and exposing European institutions to costly lawsuits.<\/p>\n