The first important meeting in a series of intense conferences on this content took place on December 8, in London, UK.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The UK, France and Germany, commonly known as the e3 group, are becoming Europe's main decision-making axes.
However, the most urgent choices regarding Ukraine's future this week were made in Brussels, not as the "EU capital", but as the capital of the Kingdom of Belgium.
On December 3, the European Commission announced a proposal to use frozen Russian assets, worth about 210 billion euros, in Europe, to secure a loan to support Ukraine.
The loan was originally scheduled for 90 billion euros but could be increased. If there is no more aid, Ukraine is expected to run out of money as early as March or April next year.
Belgium, which has held a large part of Russia's frozen assets, has opposed the idea from the start and has recently become more determined.
Whether Ukraine receives a loan or not depends largely on the ability of major EU countries to persuade Belgium to find a common voice with the European Commission.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever fears that the country will have to bear the risk of 185 billion euros in frozen Russian assets at Euroclear - a storage facility located in Belgium, if Russia reclaims those assets after the sanctions are lifted.
The EU affirmed that this plan eliminates risks for Belgium: Banks holding Russian assets will lend to the EU accordingly (without interest), the EU will then lend to Ukraine and will be responsible for repaying it to the banks. The whole bloc will share the risks.
However, Belgian Prime Minister De Wever is concerned that an EU country, like Hungary, which is pro-Russian, could refuse to extend sanctions without asking Russia for compensation. Moscow could then reclaim the assets.
Prime Minister De Wever also worried that Russia could retaliate against Belgium in many other ways.
The proposal to use Russian assets to secure a large loan to Ukraine has become an important measure of Europe's determination.
Meanwhile, governments still have to pour their own budgets to support Ukraine. Last week alone, Germany provided 100 million euros to repair Ukraine's energy infrastructure, while the Netherlands sent 250 million euros to Ukraine to buy weapons.
With the current legal case, the EU could ignore Belgium's objections to the plan, but the risk of internal division is huge. The proposal must be approved at the summit on December 18. If it fails, some countries are considering issuing a common EU debt to create a temporary loan to support Ukraine.
From now until then, the European leaders will continue to find ways to convince Belgium.
