“The US Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, called on European states to take a more decisive position towards Russia in terms of freezing Russian assets.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: as “European Truth” writes, he said this in an interview with Bloomberg
Details: Whitaker called the confiscation of Russian assets “the right step” that will provide funding for Ukraine for the next few years and “also point to a new step – a more aggressive Europe.”
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“Europe is often criticized for simply not being aggressive enough,” he added.
The US ambassador also agreed that decision-making in Europe is relatively slow.
“I’ve heard from our allies several times that what was impossible in February is discussed in June, and in the end it turns out, ‘why didn’t we do it earlier, in September?'” Whitaker said.
He repeated that the same applies to the discussion on the use of Russian assets in the EU.
“And I think that now is the time for them (Europe. – Ed.) to act boldly,” the diplomat said.
According to the estimates of the European Commission, in 2026, Ukraine will need external financing in the amount of more than 71 billion euros, of which more than 51 billion will go to military needs.
As is known, the EU’s plan with a “reparation loan” to Ukraine using Russian assets has stalled due to the reservations of Belgium, on the territory of which most of the Russian assets are stored in the EU and which is afraid of the legal consequences of such a decision.
The EU assures that the issue of using Russia’s frozen assets for financial support of Ukraine remains on the agenda, and the final decision will be made in December 2025.