Hello, it’s Friday. I’m Mared Gwyn. Today, Ukraine’s Finance Minister shares his thoughts on plans to channel Russia’s immobilised state assets to Kyiv. We also break down the brewing crisis in the Black Sea.

Kyiv calls for frozen assets revival: Ukraine hopes the European Union will formally re-open the debate around using frozen Russian state assets to fund Kyiv, the country’s Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko has exclusively told Europe Today, calling on the EU to "think outside the box" and floating a solution that would see Belgium transfer the custodianship of the assets to the EU.

“We would like a broader coalition of countries to discuss this issue during the next months. It's fair enough to envisage another year of war and that Ukraine (will) need additional sources to finance their needs,” Marchenko told our chief EU editor Maria Tadeo. 

Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain have recently urged the European Commission to re-open a previously-abandoned proposal to channel around €200 billion in immobilised assets – most of which are held in Belgium’s Euroclear depository – as a so-called “reparations loan” to Ukraine as the country’s financial needs mount.

Belgium has pushed back against the move, maintaining its previous concerns over the legal and financial risks of the unprecedented plan.

Kyiv’s proposed solution: Yet Marchenko told Maria that Ukraine wants the proposal to include “the possibility to transfer custodianship of the frozen assets from Belgium to the European Union”. “It will help to settle everything and mitigate the risk,” he explained.

“It's a totally different scenario,” he added. “We don't want this money appraised from Euroclear’s side. We want this money to be transferred into some accounts which operate under European jurisdiction.”

While the idea of transferring the custodianship of the assets has been floated informally, it has not yet been officially explored by officials. The European Commission has so far shown reluctance to re-open the debate, maintaining that the €90 billion loan agreed by leaders last December should be sufficient to cover Kyiv’s financial needs by the end of 2027.

‘Means to survive’: Yet Marchenko told Maria that as the war intensifies, Ukraine has found itself in a “totally different reality”. “We expect a very hard winter,” he explained. “Escalations mean that we should have the means to survive these escalations.” Watch the interview on today’s edition of Europe Today.

Shell-shocked: Meanwhile, following the shock resignation of Estonia's defence minister Hanno Pevkur on Wednesday over an arms deal for Ukraine, the European Commission has told Euronews’ Angela Skujins that it is in the process of recovering the European funds at the heart of the scandal.

Minister Pevkur was forced to step down amid reports the government had used as much as €70 million from the European Peace Facility (EPF) to purchase artillery shells for Ukraine from companies with no previous track record of producing the weapons, with defence officials in Tallinn responsible and at the centre of the scandal. 

Pevkur stated in his televised resignation address that he hadn’t read the paperwork.

The Commission says it is now in the process of recovering the cash through Estonia’s main defence investment outfit, the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments. “Recovered funds will be used to fund additional support to Ukraine,” the EU spokesperson said. Angela has more.

Budget battle continues: In other news today, a document seen by Euronews’ Eleonora Vasques suggests EU affairs ministers will aim to advance fraught negotiations on the bloc’s next long-term budget in a meeting Ireland today, with the overall volume of the envelope as well as the so-called own resources (which include tax-based revenues) under discussion.

EU ambassadors will gather again next week to advance the talks, amid an increasing sense of urgency to bring two opposing camps – the frugals who call for cuts and the so-called ‘Friends of Cohesion’ who want to protect agricultural and regional funds – closer together.

Also this morning: France’s EU affairs minister Benjamin Haddad has weighed in on the upcoming French presidential campaign, warning that Marine Le Pen is masking her Eurosceptic views. The leader of the hard-right National Rally is currently leading the polls ahead of the presidential vote.

“The French are deeply pro-European, (and) proud of the role that their country is playing on the European stage,” Haddad told my colleague Shona Murray in Ireland. “Marine Le Pen, for a long time, has been the candidate of Frexit. She's been the candidate of leaving the Euro. She was the candidate of the alliance with Vladimir Putin.”

“She's trying to make people forget about all of this,” he added. Watch.

New Black Sea blockade fuels fears of food crisis and migration wave

​Europe fears a devastating crisis could soon erupt as Russia’s war in Ukraine imposes a new blockade on the Black Sea, choking off a vital trade route, my collleague Jorge Liboreiro writes.

“In the Black Sea, Russian strikes on grain ships could cause another worldwide food security shock,” the EU’s High Representative Kaja Kallas said this week.

Since July, Moscow has ramped up attacks on Ukraine’s ports and vessels in the Black Sea, severely hampering its ability to sell grain to global clients such as Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Yemen and Indonesia, among others. Kyiv has responded in kind and launched drone and missile strikes against Russian ships and hubs.

The escalation has coincided with the peak of the harvest season in Ukraine and left scores of maize, barley and wheat piling up inside the country. While exporters can resort to alternative routes by train, land and the Danube, the maritime corridor remains much too important.

The blockade risks spiralling into a manifold crisis that decimates Ukraine’s public revenues, puts European assistance under extreme pressure, raises global food prices and triggers a new migration wave towards the continent.

Jorge explains what’s at stake in the Black Sea.