"The war between Russia and Ukraine is at a standstill, it is almost time to sit down and talk, because this is a loss of life," NATO Military Committee Chairman Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone said in an interview with the BBC.
Pointing to the fact that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led to the accession of two more countries to the Western alliance - Finland and Sweden, Admiral Dragone described the war as a strategic failure for Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite Russia's recent slow, gradual progress on the battlefield. The admiral believes that the Russians "will not get a friendly or puppet government like in Belarus".
Admiral Dragone said that of all NATO's defense needs, air defense is currently the top priority in light of recent incursions by Russian drones into Poland and Romania.
Regarding the possibility of activating a theoretical "drone wall" on NATO's eastern borders, he said that this would be done within months and that the allied command was already working on this issue.
"Belgium has a bilateral investment treaty with Russia and if its money, which is in the "Euroclear" depository, is frozen or confiscated, Russia will file a lawsuit against it and will block assets of Belgian companies".
This is how Karel Lanu, the executive director of the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, commented to the Bulgarian National Radio on the dangers that the kingdom faces if it allows 140 billion euros of blocked Russian assets from the depository to be used for the reparations loan for Ukraine. Lanu defined what the solidarity that Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever is insisting on could be.
"There are many Russian assets in many other member states. And they can make a list of some of them that could be blocked or seized. Just to threaten Russia on their part. Of course, these assets could already be on the 19 EU sanctions lists, but probably much more could be done. For example, to block assets of other Russian companies that are not currently on it - just to show that the other EU countries stand in solidarity with Belgium and in turn threaten to block Russian assets in every other European country," said Karel Lanu.
According to Judith Arnal, senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels and the Royal Elcano Institute in Madrid, de Wever will ask the other EU countries to share the costs if Russia wins in court.
"I think that Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever wants a specific risk-sharing with the other member states. More precisely, he is insisting on joint legal and financial guarantees. If a lawsuit is filed or Russia wins in court, Belgium should not bear all the costs and all the responsibility. An ideal option for him, but also unlikely, would be for the G7 countries to participate in limiting the risk for Belgium. At a minimum, however, he will insist on joint legal and financial guarantees from all other member states," said Judith Arnal.