Shafaq News – Brussels

The European Union cleared a €90 billion ($105 billion) financial support package for Ukraine over the next two years, European Council Chief Antonio Costa announced on Friday.

Costa said at a press conference following a European Council meeting in Brussels that the package includes an urgent loan backed by the EU budget, with repayment conditional on Russia paying reparations. He explained that Ukraine would not be required to repay the loan until Moscow ends its aggression, noting that the EU has reserved the right to use frozen Russian assets to cover repayment if necessary.

He added that EU leaders also mandated the European Commission to continue work on a separate reparations-based loan mechanism linked to frozen Russian funds, reinforcing the bloc’s position that those assets will remain inaccessible to Moscow until the war ends.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the European Council’s decision in a post on X, describing it as “a financial security guarantee for the coming years.”

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union and the Group of Seven (G7) have immobilized an estimated $300–335 billion in Russian central bank assets, amounting to roughly half of Moscow’s pre-war foreign currency reserves. Most of the frozen funds are held in Europe, primarily through Belgium-based clearing house Euroclear.