00:00Good to have you with us. Well, the Ukrainian president is tonight urging EU leaders to agree a massive new loan to Kiev using frozen Russian assets.
00:0824 hours after Donald Trump hit Moscow with sanctions on its two largest oil firms,
00:14the bloc's executive branch has been developing a plan to use those assets as collateral to drum up funds.
00:21With most of the assets held in Belgium, it's been wary of using the money without firm guarantees from other EU member states.
00:30Well, for the very latest on those talks, let's of course live now to our Europe editor.
00:34Armin Georgian is standing by for us in Brussels. Armin, firstly, what is the latest there?
00:41Have EU leaders managed to come to any agreement?
00:47No, there is no deal on this very thorny issue of the frozen Russian assets here at the EU summit.
00:55Tonight, Belgium has held out right to the end, basically.
01:00Just to rewind for a second, Sharon, so what Belgium was demanding was firm legal guarantees that if it lost a lawsuit at some point in the future
01:11and had to pay a lot of money, if, you know, unfreezing these assets was going to be challenged in international courts,
01:20if that happened, would other EU member states step up, would they step into the breach and help?
01:25So basically, Belgium wanted to share the risk among the EU member states.
01:31And what the other EU member states were offering was basically not enough here in Brussels today.
01:38Belgium still wants clear legal guarantees.
01:42And what the EU summit has decided is basically to go back to the European Commission
01:47so that the Commission will basically explore a few legal options,
01:53give those options back to the member states.
01:55The member states will then re-discuss this whole issue at the December EU Council.
02:01So in short, they're kicking the can down the road.
02:05So essentially, yeah, no deal on the frozen assets,
02:08which is probably a great disappointment to President Zelensky,
02:12who was here at the EU summit as well,
02:14and was very much urging the EU to reach a breakthrough on this issue today.
02:18But they haven't.
02:20Yeah, let's talk a little bit more about Zelensky then.
02:22And as we say, he made that impassioned plea earlier.
02:25What exactly was he hoping to walk away with, actually, to leave Brussels with?
02:33Well, I think the main thing that he would have liked to walk away with
02:37was a breakthrough on the frozen assets
02:40so that his country could start receiving the first tranche in January of 2026.
02:47And he was talking about Ukraine's urgent needs in the press conference, which I attended.
02:53But that obviously now is not going to happen before April at the earliest,
02:59according to what I'm hearing here.
03:01And that's obviously depending on there being a deal in December,
03:04which we don't even know if that's going to happen.
03:06His main pitch to EU leaders, actually, Sharon,
03:10was that Ukraine is ready to do much more together with the EU
03:15in terms of joint military production,
03:19and also that Ukraine is willing to share its military technology and know-how.
03:25So I think the overall sort of sense that Zelensky was trying to give here
03:29was that he hadn't come here just to ask for things,
03:33you know, just sort of with a hat in hand, please give me more,
03:37but actually to offer things that are added value to the European Union,
03:41because, of course, the Ukrainians now have been fighting since 2014,
03:45so they have a lot of military expertise.
03:48I think the one thing that he has walked away with, in a sense,
03:51if you want to talk about somewhat of a diplomatic win,
03:55is the fact that there was this kind of moment of serendipity
03:58between the EU and the US,
04:00with the US announcement of the sanctions on the Russian oil companies
04:05basically falling at the same time as the EU
04:09announcing its 19th package of Russia sanctions.
04:13So that's something that is obviously good as far as Zelensky is concerned.
04:18Armin Fernand, thanks so much.
04:20That's our Europe editor, Armin.
04:21Armin Fernand.
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