Whitakoff meets Zelensky and European leaders in Berlin

SadaNews - The White House announced last night that Steve Whitakoff, the special envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump, will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders in Berlin at the end of this week, amid Washington's efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

A White House official confirmed to AFP what the Wall Street Journal reported regarding Whitakoff's meeting with Zelensky and European leaders this weekend to discuss peace negotiations.

Zelensky had a "lengthy" phone call a few days ago with Whitakoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, along with the Ukrainian negotiation delegation that is in Florida.

The German government announced on Friday that Berlin will host the leaders on Monday.

Meanwhile, the European Union agreed on Friday to freeze the assets of the Russian central bank deposited in Europe indefinitely, in a move that removes a significant obstacle to using these funds to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.

The EU aims to ensure continued funding for Kyiv during the war, as it considers the Russian military operation in Ukraine to be a threat to its security.

To this end, EU countries intend to employ part of the Russian sovereign assets that were frozen following the Russian operation in Ukraine in 2022.

The first step, which EU countries agreed upon on Friday, involves freezing 210 billion euros (246 billion dollars) of Russian sovereign assets for as long as necessary, instead of voting every six months to extend the freeze.

This move would prevent Hungary and Slovakia, which have closer ties to Moscow compared to other EU countries, from exercising their right to object to a future extension of the freeze, which could potentially force the EU to return the funds to Russia.

The indefinite asset freeze aims to facilitate convincing Belgium to support the EU's plan to use the frozen Russian funds to grant Ukraine a loan of up to 165 billion euros to cover its military and civilian budget needs in 2026 and 2027.

Ukraine will only repay the loan once Russia pays war reparations to Kyiv, which effectively makes the loan a pre-funding grant sourced from future Russian reparations payments.

The European Council is scheduled to meet on December 18 to finalize the details of the reparations loan and resolve remaining issues, including providing assurances from all EU governments to Belgium that it will not bear alone any financial repercussions if Moscow wins a potential legal case.

The German government stated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Berlin for talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday before joining leaders from Europe, the EU, and NATO.

European diplomatic sources indicated that Germany sees no alternative to the reparations loan and will provide guarantees worth 50 billion euros.

Danish Finance Minister Stephanie Lose, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, told reporters that "some concerns" still need to be addressed but expressed hope that they could pave the way for a decision to be adopted by the European Council next week.

For his part, EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis stated that strong guarantees for Belgium are being established, adding in a press conference, "From the Commission's side, we are open to further work to consider how to accommodate Belgium's concerns, and this effort is currently ongoing."