Overview
- Draft summit conclusions include a bracketed clause to launch a reparations-style loan funded by cash balances linked to frozen Russian state assets, targeting up to €90 billion over two years starting in the second quarter of 2026.
- Hungary’s Viktor Orbán declared the initiative a dead end and claimed a blocking minority, while Germany’s Friedrich Merz voiced confidence a deal is reachable and EU officials signaled roughly even odds of approval.
- Volodymyr Zelensky urged leaders not to return roughly €200 billion to Moscow, said the funds would support defense production and air defenses if fighting continues or reconstruction if peace advances, and warned Ukraine’s drone output would drop without a spring tranche.
- Ukraine’s military reported 134 combat engagements in the past day and 98 so far today, with the heaviest fighting near Pokrovsk, and authorities reported civilian deaths and injuries from Russian attacks in the Kherson area.
- Ukraine’s SBU said long-range drones hit air defenses and equipment at Crimea’s Belbek airfield, the General Staff reported strikes on targets in occupied areas and Russia’s Belgorod region, and ISW assessed that Vladimir Putin reiterated maximalist war aims.