European Union (EU) leaders agreed on Friday to provide a 90-billion-euro loan to Ukraine from 2026 to 2027 to help address its looming budget shortfalls, but failed to reach consensus on tapping frozen Russian assets to finance the package.
European Council President Antonio Costa said on Friday that the loan will be backed by the EU budget, but the EU reserves the right to use frozen Russian assets to repay this loan.
Meanwhile, the EU said it will continue to advance a loan program for Ukraine that would be based on the frozen Russian assets.
According to Russian media reports, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on the same day that Russia will use all available legal mechanisms to hold accountable anyone who makes decisions or takes actions to expropriate Russian assets.
EU approves 90-bn-euro loan for Ukraine without using frozen Russian assets
German media have reported that a suspect in the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions was a Ukrainian military officer at the time of the incident.
According to Der Spiegel, a Ukrainian national suspected of involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines has been confirmed as serving in a Ukrainian special forces unit when the explosions occurred.
A letter from Ukraine's Ministry of Defense cited by the magazine said that the suspect held the rank of captain in a special operations unit between 2022 and 2023.
The report added that a former Ukrainian military officer has also confirmed the suspect served under his command during that period.
The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which run under the Baltic Sea and connect Russia with Germany and other European countries, were partially destroyed by explosions on September 26, 2022.
The suspect was arrested in Italy's Rimini province in August this year and was extradited to Germany on November 27.
Former Ukrainian military officer identified as Nord Stream Pipeline blast suspect
