The European Union’s agreement to extend 90 billion euro (around $105 billion) in no-interest loans to Ukraine last week was not elegant or free of risk, but it could represent a significant shift in how the nearly four-year-old Russia-Ukraine war plays out.

As U.S.-led peace talks between Russia and Ukraine inch forward, questions are rising around the future of Russian gas exports to Europe. The dual Nord Stream 1 and 2 subsea pipelines were destroyed and stalled,

The European Union came up with an 11th-hour deal to help Ukraine, but the solution raised questions about the bloc’s decisiveness.

A White House envoy said he held “productive and constructive” talks with Ukrainian and European representatives to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

Ukraine Strikes Airbase Deep Inside Russia. On Dec. 21, Ukrainian intelligence announced it conducted a major strike on a Russian airbase near

European Union officials wanted to use Russia’s frozen assets to back a major loan to Ukraine. Facing opposition in their own camp, they settled on another way.

European Union leaders have committed to funding Ukraine's economic and military needs for the next two years.

Russia has ordered a winter troop surge to break the stalemate in Ukraine, but Ukrainian drone attacks on logistics and resupply channels will undermine this offensive.

The European Union agreed on Friday to lend Ukraine 90 billion euros ($105 billion) but will not, for now, use frozen Russian assets to secure the loan.

The U.S. has been pursuing a solution to the war in Ukraine, and recently highlighted those efforts as part of its new national security strategy. Heather Conley, former deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs during the George W.

Witkoff said on social media that talks with officials from Ukraine and Europe focused on a "shared strategic approach."

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow that the European and Ukrainian changes would not improve the chances of peace. "This is not a forecast," Ushakov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies, though he said he had not seen the exact proposals on paper yet.