About 1,000 honking tractors rolled into the Belgian capital to heap pressure on an EU leaders’ summit where the deal’s fate hung in the balance

A new draft text discussed by European Union leaders on Thursday offers Belgium and other countries holding frozen Russian assets unlimited guarantees for potential damages, should Moscow successfully sue them for an EU plan to lend them to Ukraine.

The European Commission has proposed that the leaders use some of the frozen assets — totaling 210 billion euros ($246 billion) — to underwrite a 90 billion-euro ($105 billion) “reparations loan” to Ukraine. The U.K., Canada and Norway would fill the gap.

Belgium insists on ironclad guarantees from its EU partners to protect against Russian retaliation before backing a massive loan for Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Brussels on Thursday 18 December, where a summit of European Union leaders has just started. Source: Dmytro Lytvyn, Zelenskyy's communications adviser,

French President ‌Emmanuel Macron said on ​Friday it was ‍too early to ​say ​whether ⁠a one-month delay to decide on an EU trade deal with South America's ‌Mercosur bloc will be ​enough to ‌meet the ‍conditions set ⁠by France,