There have been calls for the EU to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defence for years – now, the bloc says it’s close to a deal. It all comes after Donald Trump accused European allies of being weak. As the fallout from those remarks continues, listen to Trump100 as you scroll.
Wednesday 10 December 2025 07:29, UK
Professor Michael Clarke will be answering your Ukraine questions in a special end-of-year programme with Kamali Melbourne.
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President Trump was back on the stump for the first time in months yesterday. The polls all say Americans are unhappy with his presidency, and with his economy. Can he reverse the tide?
But before that he was sitting down for a blockbuster interview with Politico. In it, the president eviscerates Europe, and Europe’s leaders.
Even the Pope is getting involved.
What does this mean for the US-European relationship… and is this the beginning of a big, messy break up?
Listen to the latest episode of the Trump 100 podcast below – alternatively, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.
EU Council boss Antonio Costa has said the bloc is close to greenlighting the use of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine.
It comes after the leaders of seven member states sent a letter to Costa and the EU Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday urging the EU to “move ahead quickly” with the plans.
EU leaders, who pledged to bankroll Kyiv for the next two years in October, are due to make a final decision on the proposals at a summit in Brussels on 18 December.
Costa told reporters in Dublin: “Now we are working on fine-tuning the legal and technical solution that could obtain the agreement of at least a qualified majority of member states. I think we are very close to obtaining a solution.
“For me, it’s sure that on 18 December we will take a decision. But as I shared with my colleagues, if it’s necessary, we will continue on 19 or 20 December – until we reach a positive conclusion.”
For context: Von der Leyen shared EU proposals for a Ukraine reparations loan in Brussels last week, as the bloc aims to commit two-thirds of Ukraine’s funding needs for the next two years, worth around €90bn (£79bn).
It would involve the EU taking the cash balances of frozen Russian assets held in the bloc and providing them to Ukraine as a loan.
An alternative to the loan would be the EU borrowing money on capital markets.
Welcome back to our rolling coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has wrapped up a 48-hour diplomatic blitz that included visits to London, Brussels and Rome to discuss the latest US-led push for peace.
He is expected to respond to the latest proposal soon, as he said yesterday he would share a “refined” version in the “near future”. He confirmed yesterday that it involves three separate documents, including a 20-point peace framework.
This comes after sustained pressure from Donald Trump, who said in an eye-catching interview released yesterday that Russia had the “upper hand” in peace negotiations, urging Zelenskyy to “start accepting things”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is hosting an informal meeting of ministers of European affairs from across the EU in Lviv today to build support for its EU accession.
It’s been a busy day of updates in the Ukraine war, with diplomatic efforts to end the war moving quickly.
Before we pause our live updates, here’s a brief rundown of everything that’s been happening…
Watch: Trump calls European leaders ‘weak’
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been moving nearly non-stop over the last 48 hours as he held meetings with European allies over a US-proposed peace deal in London and Brussels on Monday and in Rome on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy tends to take journalists’ questions in person while trotting the globe. But this week, he didn’t have time to hold a traditional news conference – so he improvised.
On Monday, the Ukrainian president used a WhatsApp group chat to plant the message that Ukraine would not surrender land to Russia.
While flying between London and Brussels, he answered questions from Ukrainian and international reporters by sending audio clips – a very rare method for a world leader.
Associated Press reported that the low drone of the aircraft was clearly audible on the recordings and that Zelenskyy sounded “hoarse and tired”.
On Tuesday, on his way back from Rome, Zelenskyy repeated the audio briefing, as he talked about elections and mused about an energy ceasefire (see our posts at 19.46 and 20.36).
Sky News has been speaking to Brett Bruen, a former diplomat and foreign policy advisor at the Obama White House, about Donald Trump’s Politico interview.
The US president’s derogatory comments on Ukraine’s defence efforts and Europe’s situation were mostly a negotiation strategy, Bruen said.
He told Sky News international editor Dominic Waghorn:
“What he’s trying to do is undermine Brussels, undermine London so as to get more concessions in the old New York real estate negotiation process that is so tried and true with Trump.”
Europe needs to take the initiative now to lay out what they consider an acceptable peace agreement, Bruen said, including what Ukraine not giving up land means to them.
On the plus side, he observed, Trump’s hostility was giving European governments “air cover” to take long overdue political decisions to upgrade its defence.
Watch Bruen’s full comments in the video…
Away from ongoing peace diplomacy, the situation on key parts of the battlefield remains difficult for Ukraine.
An important tug-of-war is taking place over the strategic town of Pokrovsk in the east, nicknamed “the gateway to Donetsk” in Russian media.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, has today provided an update on Pokrovsk, which Russia claimed to have taken last week.
He told journalists Ukrainian troops have made some gains in Pokrovsk since mid-November and still hold the north.
But he added:
“I gave an order a few days ago to withdraw our troops from about 5 to 7km from Pokrovsk, where they had remained.
“Rotation was no longer possible and the enemy was slipping through. There was no point in keeping them there any longer.”
The situation remained difficult, Syrskyi said.
Earlier, we reported that Ukraine has introduced emergency power cuts in most regions to avoid uncontrolled blackouts after recent Russian attacks on its energy sector (see 14.10 post).
The situation in Kyiv is among the most difficult, the Ukrainian energy ministry said.
Half of Kyiv’s residents are without power at any one time as hourly outage schedules are in effect, leaving parts of the capital in darkness.
Light came from headlights as cars kept driving through the darkness.
This delivery courier used his bike light during a quick break.
By Siobhan Robbins, Europe correspondent
Donald Trump’s bruising assessment of Europe as “weak” and “decaying” is a bitter blow to nations already reeling from the release of his national security strategy.
At the end of the 45-minute interview with Politico, EU leaders might be forgiven for thinking, with friends like these, who needs enemies?
“Europe doesn’t know what to do,” Trump said, “They want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak.”
On the contrary, I would imagine some choice words were being uttered in European capitals as they waded through the string of insults…
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