Zelenskyi told when Ukraine needs to receive a reparation loan and what it will be spent on

Ukraine should receive funds from the reparation loan next year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said during a conversation with journalists on October 23.

“We have them (funds – ed.) are needed in 2026, it is better to get them at the very beginning of the year. But I don’t know if it is possible. Not everything depends on us – something depends and that’s good, but not everything,” he said.

The head of state added that Ukraine understands who will block the loan and is ready to work with these people.

“Some of them are ready for this, but some, unfortunately, are not even ready to listen. But the good news is that there are not too many of them. I think one or two is not too much,” Zelenskyy added, without specifying who it was about.

Diplomats of the European Union, not authorized to comment on the issue officially, explained that Belgium has legal disclaimersHungary also opposes the loan.

He said that the funds are planned to be spent primarily on the development of Ukrainian defense production.

“We are talking, first of all, about long-range weapons: drones, electronic warfare, electronic warfare systems, missiles… You know the capabilities of Ukraine’s defense industry. Only part of the drones and missiles today is 35 billion per year. These are our capabilities. We used three times less. Therefore, first of all, we will use it for this component,” Zelensky emphasized.

The Ukrainian president also emphasized that the funds will be spent on joint defense production with Europe and on air defense systems capable of protecting against ballistics.

According to him, the use of Russian assets to help Ukraine is “one of the methods of pressure”, and Russia is “very afraid” of this decision. Ukraine, the president noted, is counting on this decision, and he called the relevant discussion between EU leaders “difficult, but very good.”

“I hope EU leaders will make a positive political decision to help Ukraine with funds in one way or another, using frozen assets,” Zelenskyy emphasized.

Read also: The Prime Minister of the Netherlands supported the use of frozen assets of the Russian Federation, but urged not to transfer the risks to Belgium

The Prime Minister of Belgium, Bart de Wever, on whose territory more than 180 billion Russian frozen assets are stored, said on October 23 that awaiting a legal basis of a potential decision about reparation loan for Ukraine.

The amount of cash accumulated thanks to the bonds of the Russian Central Bank in the Belgian central depository Euroclear is about 180 billion euros. These funds are not returned to Russia in connection with the sanctions introduced by the European Union in response to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The idea of ​​providing a reparation loan to Ukraine is thatto transfer this cash to the EU, which will “enter into an individual debt contract with Euroclear at 0% per annum”.

Brussels will use these funds to finance a loan to Ukraine, which it, in turn, will return only if Russia compensates for the damages caused to it. The Kremlin condemned this idea as “pure theft”.

On September 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in turn, signed a decree on a new procedure for the sale of federal assets. According to Bloomberg, Russia is ready to nationalize and quickly sell off foreign assets in response to a possible withdrawal of their funds abroad.