Selensky asks, Trump is pressuring

Selenskyj asks, Trump is pressuring – the EU is empty-handed ... The learned actor took a moment of artistic pause only to limit himself to a handful of words: "Strange!". This is how Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the behavior of Donald Trump to the assembled European press. The US president had given him more than enough reasons for this in recent days. First a diesel deal with Vladimir Putin, then the announcement to ease sanctions against Russia, the lowering of the satellite network Skylink which is essential for Ukrainian air defense, and then the comment from the White House that it is easier to talk to the Russian president than to the Ukrainian. The Plea for Help Again Disillusionment, exhaustion, despair: This is what the Ukrainian president felt when he arrived at the EU summit in Brussels on Friday to ask his European allies for help and even more help once again. Ukraine is facing the harshest wartime winter with an energy grid largely destroyed by Russian attacks, missile defenses on the verge of collapse that can stop these attacks, and a budget into which the war has dug deep holes. Another 70 Billion Again, money was the tone that permeated the discussions and background conversations with high-ranking diplomats throughout the summit. Because the EU only raised 90 billion for Ukraine less than a year ago. Now it becomes clear: the Russian destructions, the rising expenditures for salaries to keep exhausted soldiers on the front lines, all of this has once again inflated the cost of the war for Ukraine. 70 Billion, which would probably be needed in the next year, is the figure currently circulating in Brussels. Although diplomats express considerable criticism about the budget planning in Kyiv – calling it all a somewhat "chaotic" tangle of numbers – the heads of state seem to agree: Ukraine needs money again, and who should give it to them now, if not Europe? But the frozen Russian funds? A source of money that was actually written off as too firmly sealed months ago is also appearing in the debates among the heads of state: the funds of the Russian state bank frozen by Belgian financial service providers, totaling around 200 billion euros. The debate on how and when this huge sum could be collected and made available to Ukraine had actually come to an end at the end of the previous year after painstaking back and forth. Belgium stubbornly refused to take the risk of releasing these funds, which are protected by international law. Countries like Austria, which also viewed such an action with great skepticism, gave tacit but clear support. The EU itself recently took money out of its own pockets and took out a loan to finance Ukraine. "Not an inch" closer to an agreement on the budget But how simple is the next Ukrainian bond? This seems hardly achievable for most heads of state right now. At this summit, one is also stuck in a fundamental conflict about the next long-term EU budget. Hundreds of billions separate frugal countries like Austria from those that demand more money for the EU and all the new challenges. "Not an inch" was the direction they moved towards at this summit after hours of negotiations, so the painfully clear judgment of high-ranking EU negotiators. Donor Countries The country that has provided the most help to Ukraine is the USA – although financial aid and weapons deliveries have been stopped since Trump's second term. According to the Kiel Institute Ukraine Support Tracker, 115 billion euros have gone to Kyiv since the start of the war. Europe Among the European supporters in Europe, Germany is the leader: around 31 billion euros went to Ukraine – around 25 billion of which were military aid. Then comes Great Britain: 23 billion euros. Austria transferred 294 million euros directly to Ukraine – most of which was humanitarian aid. In this climate, finding new money for Ukraine seems harder than ever. So the frozen Russian billions reappeared in the summit discussions – and thus new approaches to secure the possible risks that Belgium and other Europeans did not want to bear. The idea circulated, for example, of securing a possible repayment of the funds by Moscow from the next joint EU budget so that the individual states would not have to bear the risk. Elsewhere, people began to calculate whether they would already have a reserve in this next budget to secure an EU credit – i.e., new debts. Zelenskyy himself obviously did not want to invest too much hope in the Russian billions. He primarily wishes that Russia cannot get what it cannot get, the president said noticeably disillusioned by the debates at the summit. He dutifully gave the thanks he expected in his statements from the EU leadership, that they would stand uncompromisingly and permanently behind Ukraine. But in every sentence of his remarks, it became clear how abandoned the president and his country currently feel, by the USA and lately also by Europe. He already knows that Ukraine, as a recipient of weapons deliveries, is currently "not particularly important", "even if we simply need these missiles to defend our citizens". Putin is not interested in the territory in the east of his country, but in "the existence of Ukraine". But, as Zelenskyy's inaudible resignation, "it is hard to find the words for that that our partners can also understand." Comments