STORY: European Union leaders decided on Friday (December 19) to borrow cash to fund Ukraine's defence against Russia rather than use frozen Russian assets, diplomats said.

“The member states have agreed to finance Ukraine through EU borrowing on the capital markets for an amount of 90 billion euros ($105.53 billion) for the next two years,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a news conference early on Friday.

“We will do this by way of enhanced cooperation, and that is backed by the EU budget headroom and based on a unanimous agreement to amend the MFF (Multiannual Financial Framework),” she added.

At the same time, EU governments and the European Parliament would continue working on setting up a loan for Ukraine that would be based on the frozen Russian central bank assets, according to a draft text of the summit's conclusions, seen by Reuters.

The loan to Ukraine based on the joint borrowing would only be repaid by Ukraine once it receives war reparations from Moscow. Until then, the Russian assets would remain immobilised and the EU reserved the right to use them to repay the loan, according to the text.

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VIDEO SHOWS: SOUNDBITES FROM EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT, URSULA VON DER LEYEN

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (DECEMBER 19, 2025) (EUROPEAN UNION - Access all)

1. (FROM LEFT) DENMARK’S PRIME MINISTER METTE FREDERIKSEN, EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANTONIO COSTA AND EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT URSULA VON DER LEYEN WALKING TO NEWS CONFERENCE

2. FREDERIKSEN, COSTA AND VON DER LEYEN WALKING TOWARD LECTERNS

3. NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT, URSULA VON DER LEYEN, SAYING (SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY OVERLAYS SHOT 3):

“I should better say we all share one clear goal: a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. That was much of our discussion today. So we gathered with a clear objective, to address Ukraine's pressing financing needs for the next two years. And I'm very pleased to say we made it. We have secured an agreement that we can deliver on the financing needs for Ukraine for the next two years.”

5. NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT, URSULA VON DER LEYEN, SAYING:

“As you know, the commission had proposed two solutions, both legally sound and both technically feasible. On one hand, we proposed EU borrowing on the market. And on the other hand, we had developed the reparations loan. Very important was in our discussion that last week already, on Friday, we had sent a very clear and strong political message by immobilising the Russian assets in the European Union over the long term. So that message was very clear. And building on that, we today had then agreed to find a solution for the financing of Ukraine in the next two years."

7. JOURNALIST ASKING QUESTION

8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT, URSULA VON DER LEYEN, SAYING:

“The member states have agreed to finance Ukraine through EU borrowing on the capital markets for an amount of 90 billion euros ($105.53 billion) for the next two years. We will do this by way of enhanced cooperation, and that is backed by the EU budget headroom and based on an unanimous agreement to amend the MFF (Multiannual Financial Framework). Similarly to the reparations loan, very important here Ukraine would only need to pay back the loan once it receives reparations. This is the solution we found together and as discussed in the last weeks, financing Ukraine beyond 2027 will then be part of the next MFF discussion.”

9. (MUTE) FREDERIKSEN, COSTA AND VON DER LEYEN POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS