Ukraine war live: Zelenskyy says EU agreement to loan €90bn to Kyiv ‘truly strengthens our resilience’

Ukrainian president expresses gratitude to European leaders for loan plan despite their failure to take up proposal to use frozen Russian funds EU leaders agree €90bn loan for Ukraine but without use of frozen Russian assetsThe EU agreement to provide Kyiv with an €90bn interest-free loan will cover most of Ukraine’s urgent financial needs but be secured against EU borrowing rather than frozen Russian assets.As Jennifer Rankin reports from Brussels, after the summit talks ended in the early hours of Friday, the European Council president, António Costa, told reporters: “We committed and we delivered.”The leading option at the EU summit had been to tap about €200bn of Russian central bank assets frozen in the EU to generate a loan for Kyiv but that fell through after Belgium – where the bulk of the assets are held – demanded guarantees on sharing liability that proved too much for other countries. Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever said as the summit wrapped up that he believed “ratio...