There was no plan B, they said. Until there had to be one.
At a little after 9pm on Thursday, the EU’s 27 leaders were presented with an updated version of a proposal, championed by Germany, to use Russia’s frozen assets for a €90bn loan to Ukraine. But the scale of its complexity alienated even sympathetic leaders.
“It was never going to fly,” said a senior EU diplomat briefed on the discussions. “Something that technical and obscure spooked the leaders . . . it felt like an ambush.”
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