The European Union summit failed to agree on an aid program for Ukraine, so it decided to use the proceeds of frozen Russian sovereign assets to support Kiev.
European Council President Charles Michel stressed in a press conference after the summit, on Friday, that the aid program for Ukraine will remain a "community priority."
He added: "The leaders agreed to use part of the frozen Russian assets, primarily their revenues, to support Ukraine. The summit confirmed that helping Ukraine remains a priority for the European Union."
Regarding the aid program promised to Ukraine worth 50 billion euros over four years, to which EU countries need to provide new contributions from the Union budget, Michel said: “There was a discussion of the budget and finalization of it.”
According to sources, the idea of allocating additional budget contributions to Ukraine from EU countries was hindered by Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia and a number of other EU countries.
Zakharova asks the West: Who benefits from the escalation in the Middle East?
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on Western countries to answer the question, “Who benefits from the escalation in the Middle East?”, stressing that Russia insists on a ceasefire in the region.
Through her Telegram channel, the diplomat drew attention to the fact that the media and political current in the West “promotes the premise that escalation in the Middle East is beneficial for Russia, because it distracts the international community’s attention from the situation in Ukraine.”
Zakharova pointed out that Western countries forget to pay attention to the fact that “Russia insists on a ceasefire in the region, and also distributed an invitation in this regard to a draft resolution in the UN Security Council.”
She added, "The United States blocked the Russian draft resolution in the UN Security Council specifically because of the call for a ceasefire."
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman concluded by addressing her question to the West: “Who benefits from the escalation, then?”
Earlier, against the backdrop of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, Russia distributed a draft resolution in the Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone. The document also strongly condemns acts of violence and hostilities against civilians and all terrorist acts, but the Security Council met with rejection. .
The UN Security Council also failed, after the United States used its veto, to adopt a Brazilian draft resolution to stop issuing Israeli orders to evacuate residents of the northern Gaza Strip to its south, and calls for a humanitarian truce and the establishment of safe corridors.