Merz, Starmer and Macron will promote the idea of using frozen Russian assets for the AFU

In the conversation, European leaders condemned the escalation by Russia and the latest attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure, and also promised to increase pressure on Moscow.

To this end, we are ready to move forward in a coordinated way to use the value of frozen Russian sovereign assets to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine and, thus, bring Russia to the negotiating table.

The leaders added that they are committed to working on the use of Rosactivs "in close cooperation with the United States of America."

We agreed to develop further bold and innovative mechanisms to increase the cost of Russia's war and increase pressure. This includes further measures against Russia's "shadow fleet," the leaders of Britain, Germany and France added.

The idea behind the loan using Russia's frozen assets — or "reparations loan" — is that Ukraine would only start repaying the loan after Russia ends the war and pays post-war reparations.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he expects a decision on using frozen Russian assets for further assistance to Ukraine this month.