BRUSSELS, December 19. /TASS/. Participants in the European Union summit on the expropriation of Russian assets split into "winners and losers" after a decision was made to provide Ukraine with €90 billion in funding from the EU budget, with the first group including Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, Italian head of government Giorgia Meloni, and European Council President Antonio Costa, Politico reported.

According to the publication, De Wever demonstrated steadfastness on the inadmissibility of using frozen Russian assets and ultimately proposed an alternative option. Meloni, in turn, "timed her intervention on Ukraine funding perfectly" and unexpectedly took Belgium’s position. Meanwhile, Costa managed to achieve his goal of limiting the EU summit to one day, even though most European leaders had been banking on a second day and a possible continuation of the meeting into the weekend.

Earlier, Politico described the summit’s decision on Russian assets as a "major setback" for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

EU leaders ultimately failed to agree on expropriating frozen Russian assets in the form of a "reparations loan" to Ukraine and instead decided to allocate €90 billion to Kiev over the next two years through borrowing, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a final press conference.