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In the end the Ukrainians will be left alone anyway! - Austrian DefMin's stark admission when asked how Kiev might cope without 'reparations loan'

In the end the Ukrainians will be left alone anyway! - Austrian DefMin's stark admission when asked how Kiev might cope without 'reparations loan'

"Austrian Defence Minister Klaudia Tanner made the stark admission that Ukraine would be inevitably 'left alone' regardless of EU reparations loans and other funding - when asked about divisions in the bloc over the latest funding plan - while arriving for the meeting in Brussels on Monday. "There are many legal concerns with this loan, but is there any alternative? Because if the Europeans do not provide this loan, the Ukrainians will ultimately be left on their own, won't they?" a reporter put to her. "I think, in the end the Ukrainians will be left alone, as we have already demonstrated in the past, but the fact is that the financial need is indeed immense, and that will need to be assessed," she said. She described the loan plan itself as 'very challenging, particularly legally challenging'. On Friday, the European Commission confirmed it had received a letter from Belgian PM Bart De Wever outlining his country's concerns that using frozen Russian assets for a 140 billion euros 'reparations loan' for Ukraine were 'hasty' and could damage the chances of a peace deal EU sources reportedly told media outlets that Belgium's reluctance to use the assets could be more to do with the interest earned on them by the country - although his was not said officially and there was no reaction from Belgium either. EU countries are divided over the plan - pushed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen - about the legality of using the assets and the impact on investor confidence. Russia has condemned it as illegal. "