Russian invasion The world's response

EU diplomat: Macron betrayed Merz at summit

It was Emmanuel Macron who ensured that the EU's plan to use the frozen Russian assets fell through, sources with insight told the Financial Times.

In the weeks before the meeting, Macron expressed no skepticism about using the assets to finance Ukraine. But in his inner circle he warned that France, which is deep in a budget crisis, was not in a position to agree to such a deal.

During Thursday's meeting, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz tried to get all EU countries on board. Belgium said no, Italy agreed to the resistance and Macron followed suit. That was the death knell, the sources say.

- Macron betrayed Merz, and he knows he will pay a price for it. But he is so weak that he had no other choice, says a senior EU diplomat.

Rutte: Europe ready to send troops to Ukraine if a ceasefire is broken

Several European countries are ready to send soldiers to Ukraine if Putin were to break a ceasefire. NATO chief Mark Rutte says this in an interview with German Bild.

The countries in the "coalition of the willing" are working out how it would work in practice, he continues.

- What would an operation look like? What would happen on land, at sea, in the air? All these questions are being investigated right now, he says.

Rutte says he respects that Donald Trump is negotiating with Russia, and says that the American president is the only one who can get Putin to make peace. He does not believe that the United States will leave Ukraine and Europe in the lurch.
Russian invasion • The world's response
Analyses: No competition - but the EU's new Ukraine aid is small money

The EU's Ukraine aid is small money compared to previous crisis packages. This is what DI's Nils Åkesson writes in a comment on the union's new loan of 90 billion euros.

He compares previous support of 217 billion euros since the outbreak of the war with the EU's pandemic recovery fund of 801 billion euros.

Åkesson also emphasizes that the Nordic and Baltic countries have contributed the most relative to GDP, but adds that the support "is not a competition, but probably the best investment for future security and welfare in Europe".

Politico's Gerardo Fortuna takes note of the different positions of the member states in an analysis where the winners and losers of the settlement are selected.

According to Fortuna, Belgium emerged victorious from the persistent fight against touching assets frozen in the country. But the real "kingmaker" is Italy's Giorgia Meloni. She managed to use the Ukraine discussions to delay a completely different matter: the free trade negotiations with Mercosur.

The biggest loser was Germany's Friedrich Merz, who "suffered two major defeats in the space of a few hours", namely that neither the use of Russian assets nor the Mercosur agreement came to fruition.

Russian invasion  Sanctions
Shadow fleet grows rapidly – ​​risk of confrontation

The so-called shadow fleet of ships that Russia, Iran and Venezuela use to circumvent sanctions and trade with countries such as China and India is growing very quickly, reports The Guardian.

The increasingly aggressive attempts to stop the ships, and the fact that Russia is willing to protect them militarily, are now causing experts to warn of an increased risk of military confrontations.

The shadow fleet is not a new threat, says Gonzalo Saiz Erausquin of the Royal United Services Institute think tank.

– But it has expanded drastically after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since then, it has grown explosively to between 900 and 1,200 ships globally, he continues.