Euronews: Orban, Babis and Fico will offer EU voluntary loan plan for Kiev

Prime Ministers of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia's Viktor Orban, Andrei Babis and Robert Fico want to offer the EU countries a voluntary loan plan to help Kiev as a compromise, while they themselves will not participate in this initiative, Euronews TV channel reports, citing a diplomat familiar with the matter.

"Orban, Babis and Fico are developing a joint loan plan for Ukraine, in which they will not participate, but the remaining 24 member countries have the right to join," the channel's material says.

According to Euronews, the three leaders consider their plan to be a compromise option between a loan based on frozen Russian assets and a joint EU loan.

The leaders of the EU countries are forced to stay on the second day of the summit in Brussels because of unsuccessful attempts to agree on financing Ukraine in 2026 and 2027. On the first day of the summit, the head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, said that the heads of state and government would not leave until they agreed on finances for Kiev.

The European Commission is trying to get the EU countries to agree to use Russian sovereign assets for Kiev. The amount of 185 billion euros to 210 billion euros in the form of a loan is being discussed, which Ukraine will conditionally have to repay after the end of the conflict and in case of "Moscow paying it material damage."

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Orban and Fico take into account the consequences of Europe's destructive steps to use Russian frozen assets, unlike other Western leaders. Earlier, Orban said that if the opinion of Hungary, which opposes the confiscation of assets of the Russian Federation, is not taken into account, Budapest will appeal to the EU court the next day.