“The loan that we are working right now to deliver that we agreed in the end of last year, let me remind you that that was actually plan B. Plan A was the use of frozen assets, Kallas said on Tuesday while visiting Kyiv to honour the victims of the Bucha massacre.”

“The European Commission put forward an innovative proposal to turn the €210 billion of Russian Central Bank assets held under sanctions into an interest-free line of credit to meet Ukraine's financial and military needs for 2026 and 2027.”

“Germany, Poland, the Nordics and the Baltics enthusiastically backed the plan, which offered the advantage of sparing European budgets from footing the bill.”

“Belgium, the prime custodian of the Russian assets, resisted the proposal, warning of legal pitfalls, financial repercussions and reputation damage for the eurozone.”

“The political debate stretched from September until December last year and ultimately collapsed during a make-or-break summit. As an alternative, EU leaders agreed to provide Ukraine with a €90 billion loan based on common borrowing.”

“Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic secured an opt-out from the scheme.”

“The €90 billion loan was on the verge of its final approval in February when Orbán abruptly vetoed the deal, demanding an immediate resumption of oil supplies through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline as a non-negotiable condition.”