ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Today in Brussels, leaders of the European Union announced new sanctions against Russia as they welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That announcement comes the day after the U.S. announced new sanctions on Russia for the first time in Donald Trump's current presidency. EU leaders are also weighing an even bolder plan to seize $160 billion worth of frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine finance its defense. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley is watching developments from Paris and joins us now. Hey, Eleanor.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Good evening.
FLORIDO: Tell us what was decided today.
BEARDSLEY: Well, it is not wrapped up yet, but imagine just a few days ago, the Europeans and Ukraine were faced with the prospect of another one-on-one Putin-Trump summit that excluded them. Then all of a sudden, that meeting was called off and President Trump, for the first time since the full-scale invasion, slapped sanctions on Russia, which coincided with new EU sanctions. So leaders actually arrived this morning with smiles on their faces - none more so than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Let's listen.
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PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: Thank you, first of all, for invitation. And this decision of 19th package of sanctions is crucial for us. Thank you so much. And today, it goes together with yesterday's decisions of President Trump on energy, also sanctions package. We waited for this. God bless, it will work.
FLORIDO: Eleanor, do we know if there was any coordination between the EU and the U.S. on these sanctions?
BEARDSLEY: Well, probably just at the last minute because the landscape has been shifting so dramatically. But yesterday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Commerce Secretary Scott Bessent did talk before anything was made public, with Bessent telling her the U.S. was going to hit the two biggest Russian oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft, with sanctions, which is a big hit to the Russian budget and the Russian psyche. There is relief in Europe as many see President Trump as finally waking up, maybe, to the threat Russia poses and the impossibility of negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
FLORIDO: Tell us more about this other scheme to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. How would something like that work?
BEARDSLEY: Well, it's very complicated. Russia has about 300 billion in monetary assets in Europe, and 200 billion are in Belgium, in one of the EU's largest clearinghouses. They were there - that was all there before the war. The EU froze those assets after the full-scale invasion in February of 2022, and in 2023, G7 nations said that these funds would be retained until Russia pays for the damage it caused in Ukraine. Now, the EU has been using interest from these assets to help Ukraine, but using the actual assets is another matter. But they came up with an elaborate financial scheme to use them as collateral for a $160 billion, 0% loan to Ukraine, which would cover its war budget for two years. Here's EU foreign affairs and security chief Kaja Kallas speaking this morning about it.
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KAJA KALLAS: The fundamental message is that Russia is responsible for the damages caused in Ukraine and has to pay for those damages. And the frozen assets, we have the reparations loan, on the basis of that, for Ukraine to defend itself.
BEARDSLEY: So, you know, this didn't happen before because Europe was divided on it. It's controversial. It could set a bad precedent. You know, other nations could seize European assets, or investors could consider Belgium risky and pull their funds out. But for Europe, this war is an existential threat, and with the U.S. seen as stepping back, they need the money. And Kallas said using Russia's frozen assets sends three important signals - to Ukraine, we support you; to Russia, you can't outlast us; and to America, Europe is taking decisive action.
FLORIDO: That's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley in Paris. Eleanor, thanks.
BEARDSLEY: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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