EU leaders on Friday agreed to provide a €90bn loan to Ukraine raised through common borrowing after abandoning a more contentious and complex scheme using frozen Russian central bank assets. The two-year lifeline is undoubtedly good for Ukraine, giving it cash to sustain its fight against Russian aggression, purchase foreign arms and invest in its own weapons production. A failure to agree the funding would have undermined Ukraine’s defences and its position in US-brokered peace talks with Moscow. It would have also shown the EU to be incapable of protecting its own security let alone of being the geopolitical actor it aspires to be.
上周五，歐盟各國領導人達成一致，同意通過共同借款籌集900億歐元貸款提供給烏克蘭；此前，他們放棄了一項利用俄羅斯央行被凍結資產的更具爭議且復雜的方案。這筆兩年期“救命錢”對烏克蘭而言無疑是件好事，為其提供了持續對抗俄羅斯侵略、采購外國武器以及投資自身武器生產的資金。如果歐盟未能就這筆資金達成協議，將會削弱烏克蘭的防御能力及其在由美國斡旋的對俄和談中的地位。如果無法就這筆資金達成協議，也將暴露歐盟連自身安全都保護不了，更不用說成為其所向往的“地緣政治參與者”。