U.S. warns air traffic controllers could be dismissed as shutdown delays mount
The U.S. government has warned that air traffic controllers who repeatedly fail to report for duty during the shutdown could be fired, amid rising fli...
The European Commission will include the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) assessment of Ukraine's financing needs over the next two years in deciding how big the European Union's Reparations Loan to Kyiv should be, EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said.
The European Union is discussing ways to use frozen Russian assets to underpin a "reparation loan" to Ukraine to bolster its wartime finances as U.S. President Donald Trump is curbing direct U.S.-funded military aid to Kyiv.
"What the Commission is proposing is a reparations loan, so basically providing a loan to Ukraine by using cash balances of immobilised Russian assets without... touching Russia's claim on those assets," Dombrovskis told reporters on entering talks between EU finance ministers in Copenhagen.
Waiting for IMF assessment on financing needs
"We are right now working on all the modalities, on timings, on volumes. For volumes, it will be important for us also to see the IMF assessment on the finance needs for Ukraine over the next two years, and the IMF is currently finalising this work," he said.
Spanish Finance Minister Carlos Cuerpo said he expected a Commission proposal on the loan in October.
"From the Spanish perspective, we will be supportive," Cuerpo told reporters.
There is around $300 billion in Russian central bank assets immobilised in G7 countries, the bulk of which is in Europe and in particular in Belgium, where the Euroclear securities repository holds €194 billion ($228.24 billion) of the assets.
Of the €194 billion in securities, some €170 billion have now become cash as the securities matured since their freezing when Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. It is not clear how much of that money could be used for the Reparations Loan idea.
Loan risks to be shared among EU governments
Dombrovskis said the model that the Commission was working on would be replicable in all G7 countries that hold some of the frozen Russian assets and that he discussed the idea with G7 finance ministers during a recent call.
The Commission has not disclosed any details of the reparations loan idea apart from the assumption that Ukraine would only repay the loan once it receives reparations from Russia for war damage and that risks associated with the loan would be shared by EU governments.
EU officials involved in the discussions of the idea said it would involve replacing the Russian assets held in Europe with zero-coupon bonds issued by the European Commission. The bonds would have guarantees from either all EU countries or just those willing to participate.
The government guarantees are the politically risky feature because they could be called upon if Russia makes claims once EU sanctions against Moscow are reversed.
Belgian Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem said he was sceptical about the idea.
He called the proposal "rather vague" and stressed risks need to be shared among all EU member states.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
The U.S. government has warned that air traffic controllers who repeatedly fail to report for duty during the shutdown could be fired, amid rising flight delays across the country.
U.S. President Donald Trump credits himself with ending "seven wars in seven months" since he returned to the White House in January. With just a few hours to the announcement of Nobel Peace Prize, could he win the prestigious international award?
The United States will deploy 200 troops as part of a joint task force aimed at stabilising Gaza, though no U.S. personnel will be stationed within the Strip, according to two senior U.S. officials on Thursday.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb finalised an agreement on Thursday, for the U.S. Coast Guard to acquire up to 11 icebreaker ships, enhancing U.S. national security in the Arctic.
A large-scale Russian attack on Friday morning caused a fire in a high-rise apartment building in central Kyiv and targeted energy infrastructure, officials reported.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment