Zelenskiy tells us in an interview that right now, there is no alternative
From: Bloomberg by Oliver Cook
Welcome to the Brussels Edition. I’m Oliver Crook, chief Europe correspondent for Bloomberg Television, bringing you the latest from the EU. Make sure you’re signed up.
For European leaders listening to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the importance of finding a way to monetize the €140 billion of frozen Russian assets will be hard to misinterpret.
“I hope, God bless, we will get this decision,” Zelenskiy told me yesterday in a Bloomberg TV interview in Kyiv. “It’s a question of our surviving, that’s why we need it very much. And I count on partners.”
The decision of whether and how to make use of those assets has been a spirited debate since the beginning of the war, but in recent months it has reached its height.
Even as European leaders continue to emphasize the importance of supporting Ukraine, an ugly truth has dawned: they don’t have the fiscal space to fund its defense from their own budgets.
The European Commission has stepped up negotiations with Belgium to get buy-in for the plan to tap immobilized Russian assets, most of which are based in that country. The last EU summit in October ended without agreement after Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever dug in. Attention has shifted to the next time they convene in Brussels on December 18-19.
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