21 h. ago UK bankers warn on plan to use Russian assets for loans to Ukraine

Lenders concerned they could be at significant risk of potential lawsuits from Moscow

Events

63 h. ago The Guardian view on Trump and Europe: more an abusive relationship than an alliance | Editorial

The White House is aggressively seeking to weaken and dominate the United States’ traditional allies. European leaders must learn to fight back.Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz have become adept at scrambling to deal with the latest bad news from Washington. Their meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Downing Street on Monday was so hastily arranged that Mr Macron needed to be back in Paris by late afternoon to meet Croatia’s prime minister, while Mr Merz was due on television for an end-of-year Q&A with the German public.But diplomatic improvisation alone cannot fully answer Donald Trump’s structural threat to European security. The US president and his emissaries are trying to bully Mr Zelenskyy into an unjust peace deal that suits American and Russian interests. In response, the summit helped ramp up support for the use of up to £100bn in frozen Russian assets as collateral for a “reparations loan” to Ukraine. European counter-proposals for a ceasefire will ...

Politics

4 d. ago France shielding €18bn Russian asset pot from EU ‘reparations loan’ push

Paris guarded names of private banks holding world’s second biggest accumulation of immobilised Russian state funds

Politics

8 d. ago European Commission plans ‘reparations loan’ to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets

Leaders focus on bolstering Ukraine’s finances as US-Russia talks to end war make little progressThe European Commission will move ahead with controversial plans to fund Ukraine with a loan based on Russia’s frozen assets, but in a concession to concerns raised by Belgium, which hosts most of the assets, the EU executive has also proposed another option: an EU loan based on common borrowing.The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Wednesday the two proposals would ensure “Ukraine has the means to defend [itself] and take forward peace negotiations from a position of strength”. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Trump’s grab for Russian frozen assets puts EU Ukraine loan in doubt

Brussels blindsided by US plan for joint investment funds with Moscow and Kyiv

Politics

2 w. ago US president’s grab for Russian frozen assets puts EU Ukraine loan in doubt

Brussels blindsided by US plan for joint investment funds with Moscow and Kyiv

Politics