"Belgium's PM Bart De Wever spoke about beating the EU leadership and forcing a climbdown on the Russian frozen assets plan - before launching into a lengthy comparison about his own CAT - following a marathon European Council session on Thursday. "Haven't some politicians around the table lost a big political fight, not to name Friedrich Merz and von der Leyen, who initially proposed the reparations loan. She defended it. She worked out that option in detail, and in the end, it failed," one reporter put to him. "Ukraine has its money. Maybe not the way they wanted it, maybe not the way they were pushing for. But it is, in the end of the day in my language that you also speak, you should not complain about the colour of the cat. If it can catch a mouse, it is fine. And I have a cat in my office. It's grey and it does not catch mouses, mice, mice. But I love it anyway," he said. Crunch talks between European leaders in Brussels saw them fail to agree on the keynote plan pushed by the European Commission to use frozen Russian assets for a $140bn 'reparations loan' for Ukraine. The alternative - a smaller $90bn loan over two years backed by the EU budget - needed a unanimous decision, with Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic only agreeing to approve it on the proviso that they did not have to contribute. Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky warned that he would not have the money to build drones or pay his soldiers if more cash was not forthcoming. On the failed Russian frozen assets proposal, De Wever also said: "When we explained the text again, there were so many questions that I said, ‘I told you so, I told you so.’ There are a lot of loose ends. And if you start pulling at the loose ends in the strings, the thing collapses." Belgium - where the assets are held - and others warned of the impact on investor confidence, the need for 'risk-sharing' if Russia won a subsequent lawsuit, and questioned the legality. Italy, Belgium, Malta and Bulgaria called for alternatives to be explored, while others like Hungary and Slovakia have highlighted the need to end the Ukraine conflict - rather than fund more weapons- as well as ongoing corruption scandals in Ukraine. Russia condemned the frozen assets plan as 'illegal' and 'theft'. "