Europe’s Ukraine loan is a bad bet. Complex financial schemes only ever defraud

Wolfgang Munchau in an UnHerd column explains that the plan to give Ukraine a €150 billion loan using the 200 billion of Russian money frozen in Brussels is a very bad idea. He doesn't mention that it is also theft.

The Europeans still have no strategy for ending the war, yet Vladimir Putin has good reason to believe he can achieve his military goal of occupying the entirety of the Donbas region. He outspends the West, he has a lot more troops, and he has made some progress recently. Given Ukraine’s formidable defences, it might still take him another year or two, but the odds are in his favour.

If, then, Putin prevails, the peace talks will not only be about the land and the post-war security arrangements. The Russians will want their confiscated assets back. I don’t think for a moment that the Europeans would blow a peace deal by refusing them. So Putin will get his money. And the European taxpayer, who never approved these loans in the first place, will have to pay out.