Crunch talks in Brussels on Russia's frozen assets
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and at 16 Hours GMT on Thursday 18th December, these are our main stories. EU leaders are told to choose between money today and blood tomorrow as they debate giving frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. We visit one of Ukraine's secret weapons factories, now said to be making half of the arms used on the front line. Australia marks the funeral of the youngest Bondi beach attack victim, 10-year-old Matilda. also in this podcast. Hello and welcome to the FIFA 23 reveal trailer. Football's world governing body, FIFA, partners with Netflix for a return to the world of video gaming. Belgium, where most of Moscow's $245 billion worth of assets, opposes the move.
And Belgium isn't alone. Italy and Slovakia also expressed their doubts. Shortly before the meeting began, Hungary's leader Viktor Orban, who's very close to Russia's Vladimir Putin, gave his thoughts on the proposal.
The whole idea is a stupid one, to take away the money of somebody. There are two countries which are in war, yeah? It's not European Union, Russia and Ukraine. And somebody, European Union, would like to take away the money of one of the warring parties and then to give it to another one. It's a marching into the war. So the Belgian prime minister is right. We should not do that.
France and Poland led calls to hand the money over to boost Ukrainian resistance. President Emmanuel Macron of France shared his thoughts as he entered the talks.
Our willingness here during this Council is to deliver a package of financing in order to provide visibility. And it's very important that we find the right compromise, and I'm confident that we will find it. But the position of the Europeans is very clear. We support Ukraine in these war efforts. We want to provide visibility to Ukraine, and we do support a robust and solid peace. This is why we will follow up the negotiations in parallel, and we will finalise the work as well of the Coalition of the Will.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said European leaders had a straightforward decision to make.
Now we have a simple choice. Either money today or blood tomorrow. And I am not talking about Ukraine only. I am talking about Europe. And this is our decision to make. And only ours.
Our correspondent James Waterhouse in Brussels explained what's at stake. At its heart is a proposal to unfreeze tens of billions of euros worth of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine in the form of a loan. Kyiv has a gaping hole in its finances over the next couple of years to the tune of 135 billion euros. Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledges that this proposal is crucial for his country's survival and those in support of it, like Germany, like the European Commission, like the UK, like France, say this is crucial for Ukraine to survive long enough for a lasting peace deal. But there are growing opposers to this idea, not least with Belgium, where the majority of this Russian money is kept.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–8:25
2
What are the implications of using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine?
8:25–11:11
3
How does Belgium's stance affect EU negotiations on Russian assets?
11:11–22:54
4
What challenges does Ukraine face in financing its war efforts?
22:54–30:06
5
Why is there opposition to unfreezing Russian assets in Europe?
30:06–32:21
Speakers
10 identifiedMore from Global News Podcast
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