1/7 Someone must be held accountable: the current purge is a consequence of internal discord between the FSB and the military, arising from the failure to capture Kyiv and competition for defense funds. Update by @joni_askola pic.twitter.com/eBZqBN7Gat
— Artur Rehi (@ArturRehi) May 24, 2024
Day: May 25, 2024
Foreign ministers confident of agreement to use bank assets as security for Ukraine reconstruction loan
Hopes of a multi-country deal to use $300bn of Russian state assets frozen in the European banking system to support Ukraine have grown after it emerged that G7 ministers were confident of overcoming technical and political obstacles at a meeting in northern Italy on Saturday.
The Canadian finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, said she was optimistic that G7 leaders would reach an agreement, as support coalesced around a plan to use frozen Russian central bank assets as security for a $50bn (£39bn) loan.
Exclusive: Radosław Sikorski also says he favours deepest possible inclusion of UK in EU defence structures
A long-term rearmament of Europe, in which the UK can play the closest possible role, is necessary to defeat Russian imperial ambitions, Poland’s foreign minister has said.
Radosław Sikorski also called for majority voting for EU sanctions and a 5,000-strong EU mechanised brigade, and said Poland was willing to back an EU-wide scheme to incentivise Ukrainian draft dodgers to return to their homeland.