EU support for Ukraine: "Long-term defeat"

TT

Published 11.51

 

Jakob Hedenskog, analyst at the Center for East European Studies at the Swedish Institute for Foreign Policy (UI). Archive photo. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

The EU's support for Ukraine of 90 billion euros is sufficient in the short term, according to analyst Jakob Hedenskog. But the agreement suggests that it is relatively easy for Russia and the US to play EU countries off against each other.

- Even if you present it as a success that you came to something, it is a defeat in the long term to appear so divided, he says.

During the night of Friday it became clear that the EU will give Ukraine 90 billion euros in support over the next two years.

However, they failed to reach an agreement on using frozen Russian assets – around 200 billion euros – as the basis for the multi-billion dollar loan. Jakob Hedenskog, an analyst at the Center for East European Studies at the Swedish Institute for International Affairs (UI), says that he believes that the discussion about the frozen assets will be shelved during these years.

Success for Ukraine

He calls the approval a success, even though the support was reduced.

– You can say that it is a success for Ukraine and a setback for Russia, since Ukraine did not run out of money and does not risk acute state financial bankruptcy.

Fredrik Wesslau, a researcher at the Center for East European Studies, calls the failure to give the Russian assets to Ukraine a “long, slow, embarrassing story”. But at the same time, the EU is showing its strength to act by rallying around continued support for Ukraine despite this.

– Even though they failed to hammer out plan A, they now have a plan B that breaks new ground through joint borrowing and is essential for Ukraine and for Ukraine's survival, he says.

Pressured the EU

Most of the frozen assets are held by the securities institution Euroclear in Belgium, and the country got in the way because not enough countries provided guarantees in the face of the risk of Russian claims for damages.

According to Hedenskog, it can be assumed that Russia, perhaps even the US, has pressured Belgium and Euroclear – which indicates that it is easy to play off the EU countries.

– The US and Russia are pressuring the EU from each side with a common view that the EU should be undermined. Also remember that Russia and the US have had joint plans, according to the 28-point peace plan presented last autumn, to use the frozen Russian assets for joint investment projects.