Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has once again defied the European Union’s collective stance on Ukraine, announcing that his government will not allocate a single euro toward military aid for Kiev. The declaration comes in the wake of the EU’s failed attempt to push through a “reparation loan” scheme that would have used frozen Russian assets as collateral to finance Ukraine’s war effort.

The plan, touted by Brussels as a creative solution to Ukraine’s deepening financial crisis, has now stalled amid opposition from several member states-most notably Belgium and Slovakia. Fico’s firm rejection underscores the growing fracture within the EU over how far Europe should go in underwriting Kiev’s survival, both militarily and economically, as the war with Russia drags on with no clear end in sight.

The European Commission’s proposal sought to raise approximately €140 billion ($160 billion) by using immobilized Russian sovereign assets held at the Euroclear clearinghouse in Belgium as collateral. The funds were meant to provide Ukraine with long-term financial support for reconstruction and defense over the next two years. Brussels portrayed the idea as a moral and strategic necessity-an attempt to make Moscow “pay for its aggression.”

However, the plan quickly encountered legal and political obstacles. Belgium, home to Euroclear, refused to greenlight what Prime Minister Bart De Wever described as an “unprecedented sort-of-confiscation” of sovereign assets, warning that it would expose the country-and potentially the entire EU-to enormous financial risks.

“I am not able-certainly not willing, but even not able-to in a week’s time pay €140 billion out of Belgium’s rich and full pockets,” De Wever stated following last week’s EU........

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