US urged Europeans to oppose EU's loan plan to help Ukraine

Jenny Leonard, Alberto Nardelli, Eric Martin and Ott Tammik, Bloomberg News on Dec 5, 2025

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The U.S. lobbied several countries in the European Union in an effort to block E.U. plans to use frozen Russian central bank assets to back a massive loan to Ukraine, according to European diplomats familiar with the matter.

U.S. officials argued to member states that the assets are needed to help secure a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow and should not be used to prolong the war, said the diplomats, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The E.U. put forward a proposal this week to use the immobilized assets to back a €90 billion ($105 billion) loan to cover Ukraine’s economic and military needs for the next two years. There are about €210 billion of frozen Russian assets on E.U. soil and more of those could be used from 2028 on.

The U.S. State Department’s press office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The discussions come at a critical time for Ukraine, with the U.S. pressuring Kyiv to agree to a potentially lopsided peace deal with Russia. U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to meet again Friday with Ukrainian national security adviser Rustem Umerov in Florida, according to a White House official. Ukraine risks running out of money early next year and Trump’s administration has cut off most U.S. aid, putting the onus on Europe.

The E.U. also has to contend opposition to the plan from within the bloc from several countries including Belgium, where most of the funds are held. The E.U. is seeking approval for its proposal to use the assets at a meeting of the bloc’s leaders later this month.

Washington has also been eyeing the Russian assets as part of its proposals to enable peace talks with Moscow, and had suggested they could be used to fund U.S.-led postwar investments.

A U.S. 28-point peace plan has been modified since it first emerged last month, but assets remain one of the key sticking points, along with the status of Ukrainian territories and providing Kyiv with robust security guarantees, some of the people said.

European leaders have been adamant that how to use the assets is a European matter as the frozen funds are mostly held in Europe.

There is “no possibility of leaving the money we mobilize to the U.S.,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday.

“The American government knows this, and this is also the German government’s negotiating position,” he said. “This is also the consensus at the European level. There are absolutely no differences of opinion on this. This money must flow to Ukraine — it must help Ukraine.”

Merz will travel to Brussels Friday for talks with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in an effort to break down Belgian resistance to the E.U. plan.

Merz, who has been a strong advocate of using the Russian assets to aid Ukraine, told reporters that he takes the Belgian premier’s concerns “very seriously” and that he would try to address them at Friday’s meeting.

“I don’t want to persuade him, but rather convince him,” he said at a news conference Thursday evening in Berlin after talks with German regional leaders. “If we take this path, we will do so to help Ukraine, possibly for the next two to three years.”

Belgium argues that it has yet to receive sufficient guarantees that it won’t be left on the hook alone to foot any future bill should Moscow win any future claims on recovering the assets. It also says that using the frozen funds would open Europe, and its companies, to Russian retaliation.

Belgium’s national budget has received hundreds of millions of euros in tax revenue from the immobilized funds, though it argues that the money is being used to provide aid to Ukraine.

The E.U. has proposed backing the loan using the bloc’s budget or through bilateral guarantees from member states. The assets would remain frozen and Kyiv would only have to pay the loan back if Russia agrees to finance the country’s reconstruction and compensate it for the damage the war has inflicted.

In addition to Belgium, Hungary is against the plans and Slovakia has said it will not back proposals that provide Ukraine with military support. Approval would only require a qualified majority of member states.

The commission has also floated the option of issuing joint debt in the event they can’t reach an agreement to use the immobilized assets. But member states including Germany reject that idea, and the fact that it requires unanimity makes it improbable.

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—With assistance from Daniel Hornak, Andrea Dudik and Kate Sullivan.