Ukraine war
EU wants to save Ukraine with credit – Russia scoffs
Updated 12/19/2025 – 5:00 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
Things went well again: The EU secured funding for Ukraine – although not in the way the Chancellor wanted. The day after, everyone celebrates themselves as winners – including Russia.
The EU has once again pulled together in the dispute over aid to Ukraine and secured financing for the country attacked by Russia for the next two years. However, the compromise turns out to be different than what Chancellor Friedrich Merz imagined and is ridiculed by Russia. Who really benefits from the result of the long night of negotiations in Brussels, which only ended at 3 a.m.?
The country attacked by Russia receives an interest-free loan of 90 billion euros from the EU. This means that a national bankruptcy is averted for the next two years and Ukraine can continue to be supported with arms deliveries for the defensive fight against Russia. Only if Russia does not pay for the war damage on its own initiative should Russian assets frozen in the EU be used for repayment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj viewed the billions in aid as a “big victory” for his country. This is positive news for the Ukrainian population and a signal to Russia that continuing the war is not worth it, said Zelensky.
It is at least questionable whether Zelensky and the EU’s calculation will work out that the signal of Ukraine’s ability to hold out for a longer period of time will bring Russia to the negotiating table. The first indications of this may come at the talks between the USA and Russia in Florida at the weekend.
In any case, the Kremlin initially celebrated it as a success that the EU could not agree on using Russian assets directly for loans to Ukraine. This means a defeat for Merz and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, wrote Russian chief negotiator Kirill Dmitriyev on the Telegram platform. “Law and common sense have prevailed for now.”
Russia had always warned against the “theft” of its state assets and threatened to use Western money – especially from private investors and companies – for its own purposes in return. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin said in Moscow that Russia would continue to defend its interests and try to find politically independent courts that would uphold the lawsuit for the repatriation of state billions frozen in the EU. “Whatever they steal, at some point it has to be returned,” he said.
The EU managed to avoid a major debacle at the summit. However, what happened from Thursday morning to Friday morning in the Europa building in Brussels revealed deep rifts within the community of states. Three countries, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, insisted that they would not share in the costs of financing Ukraine.
