Merz demands further funds for Ukraine at EU summit

Europe must increase its financial support for Ukraine, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday as EU leaders convened for a summit in Brussels, reported dpa.

"I argued in various smaller meetings this morning that we must do everything to help Ukraine through the winter, and also next year," Merz told journalists. "We will also have to increase the funds again here in order to really help Ukraine on a lasting basis."

While Kiev's budget for this year is fully funded, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said in September during a visit to Brussels that the country is missing $32.6 billion from next year's regular budget. The gap in defence spending, meanwhile, was $45 billion.

Merz also rejected transferring part of the Russian assets frozen in the European Union to the United States, to then use them as leverage in efforts to negotiate peace.

The assets, totalling about €210 billion ($235 billion), should remain in Europe, the chancellor said. "That is our matter, and we decide on it."

The Financial Times previously reported that the idea of transferring part of the assets was raised at a meeting of government representatives from the US, Ukraine and Europe in Miami. Germany, the United Kingdom and France also took part.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the EU summit on Friday. Merz was in Kiev last week.

"We are seeing an increasingly ruthless wave of attacks from Russia against Ukraine," Merz said in Brussels. "And I remain firmly convinced that we are not only defending Ukraine's territorial integrity, but also defending Europe's political order, which Russia is really putting under pressure in every respect here."