A bill on confiscating frozen Russian assets on the territory of the EU, as part of the measures against Moscow, is expected to be drafted by December when the European Council is to hold a meeting, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders has announced.

On his part, Czech Minister of European Affairs Mikuláš Bek stated, after a meeting of the Council of the EU, that pressure on Russia cannot be relaxed under any circumstances, adding that the countries had unanimously condemned the Russian shelling of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. That is a war crime, Mikuláš Bek said. “Almost half of Ukraine's energy system is out of order due to the Russian massive strikes,” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated.

Ukraine could receive the first tranche of the planned macro-financial support amounting to EUR 18 billion as early as January, 2023, European Commission Executive Vice President and Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis announced in Kyiv. “Given its EU candidate country status, Ukraine’s rebuilding process is an opportunity to align further to EU laws and standards, such as the single market standards, but also rule of law and other EU principles and policies,” Valdis Dombrovskis said.

The White House said Friday that only Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can decide to open peace talks with Russia, rejecting the notion that it was pressing Kyiv to negotiate, AFP reports. “We all agree that a diplomatic negotiated settlement is the next best thing to Putin just pulling his troops out,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby. “We have also said that Zelensky gets to determine if and when he's ready for negotiations and what those negotiations look like. Nobody from the United States is pushing, prodding or nudging him to the table.”