“We will respond to the freezing of our assets by the EU”

Salvini: “Europe plays with fire”

“Personally I consider it a gamble, an imprudence. And the Italian government did well to dot the I’s” says the deputy prime minister and leader of the League Matteo Salvini. “Because we are in a free market and we are not at war against Russia. So, either tonight someone in Brussels, in Paris, in Berlin has declared war on Russia, or it seems to me that someone in Brussels is playing with fire.”

The meeting in Berlin

Meanwhile, a new round of talks on the peace plan for Ukraine will be held tomorrow in Berlin. Foreign policy advisors from several countries, including the United States, Ukraine and European countries, will take part, German government sources confirmed to the ‘Dpa’ news agency. White House envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Volodymir Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Keir Starmer on Sunday and Monday (Wall Street Journal source). On Monday Merz will meet Zelensky, “many other European leaders”, including Macron and Starmer, and the leaders of the European Union and NATO, as Berlin announced. The president of Finland, Alexander Stubb, will also take part in the discussions on the peace plan on Monday.

During the meeting in Berlin, the possible use by the European Union of Russian assets, frozen last Friday indefinitely, to support Kiev will also be discussed again. A theme that will also be central at the European Council on 18 and 19 December in Brussels, when the Twenty-Seven will have to decide whether to use those assets as collateral for new financing to support Ukraine.

Axios: “USA ready for guarantee based on art. 5 Born with Congress vote”

“Significant progress” has been recorded in negotiations on the security guarantees that Ukraine would obtain from the US and Europe. Axios writes about it, quoting a high-level US official according to whom the Trump Administration is willing to give Ukraine “a guarantee based on Article 5 of NATO”.

“We want to give the Ukrainians a security guarantee that is not a blank check but is sufficiently strong – said the source – We are willing to submit it to Congress for a vote.” If approved, the clause would be binding.