Zelensky welcomes EU’s 90bn euro loan: ‘This truly strengthens our resilience’
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed the 90 billion euro loan granted by the European Union to his country to finance its war effort against Russia.
“This is significant support that truly strengthens our resilience,” Zelensky wrote on X. “It is important that Russian assets remain immobilized and that Ukraine has received a financial security guarantee for the coming years.”
Zelensky had argued for 200 billion euros in Russian assets frozen and held by Euroclear in Belgium to be used, but this was ultimately rejected by EU leaders following continued resistance from Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever.
Instead, an interest-free loan of 90 billion euros will support Ukraine as fighting continues despite ongoing negotiations. The loan is sufficient to cover Ukraine’s military and budgetary needs for the next two years.
“Thank you for the result and for unity,” Zelensky said following the agreement, reached early on Friday morning. “Together, we are defending the future of our continent.”
Russian assets will remain frozen until the country has made reparations to Ukraine. “I don’t think anyone in the European family wants to see that money return to Moscow,” De Wever said following the summit in Brussels. “It was not a battle between knights, but a rational debate.”
The leaders of the 27 member states had to find a lasting solution at Thursday night’s meeting, as Ukraine is in danger of running out of money in the first quarter of 2026.
De Wever said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who has pushed for using the frozen assets, had played her role well. “She has to sense where the majority of member states want to go,” he said, and after Italy, Malta and Bulgaria joined Belgium in openly questioning the plan, “she once again started to communicate two options”.
"Thank you for the result and for unity. Together, we are defending the future of our continent"
Belgian Foreign minister Maxime Prévot praised the agreement reached in Brussels. "Belgium has consistently called for a sustainable solution," he said on X.
"Legally robust, financially safe. A solution with predictable parameters. Avoiding unprecedented and unreasonable risks. This is the solution we have found today. I commend my Prime Minister for his instrumental role in achieving this result, alongside and together with our diplomatic teams."
Kirill Dmitriev, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, said that “law and sanity” had prevailed.
“Major BLOW to EU warmongers led by failed Ursula — voices of reason in the EU BLOCKED the ILLEGAL use of Russian reserves to fund Ukraine. Law and sanity win… for now,” Dmitriev said on X.
Bart De Wever and Volodymyr Zelensky meet on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels, 18 December 2025 © PHOTO HANDOUT / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP
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