The European Central Bank has refused to backstop a €140 billion payment to Ukraine, dealing a blow to an European Union (EU) plan to raise a “reparations loan” backed by frozen Russian assets. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/GettyThe European Central Bank has refused to backstop a €140 billion payment to Ukraine, dealing a blow to an European Union (EU) plan to raise a “reparations loan” backed by frozen Russian assets. Under the European Commission plan, EU countries would provide state guarantees to ensure the repayment risk on the €140 billion loan to Ukraine is shared. But commission officials said the countries would not be able to raise the cash rapidly in an emergency, and this could put markets under pressure. The EU has frozen Russian assets worth about €210 billion since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
