Pressure is growing on member states to back a €90bn loan for Kyiv ahead of a Brussels summit

European leaders are being urged to decide whether to use Russia’s frozen assets to fund Ukraine’s defence at a time of unprecedented pressure from the US.

At a critical summit in Brussels on Thursday, EU leaders will be asked to make good on a promise to find urgently needed cash for Ukraine, with Kyiv under pressure to cede territory as Russia ekes out advances on the battlefield.

Arriving at the summit, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said Europe had a choice between “money today or blood tomorrow”. He said he was “not talking about Ukraine only, I am talking about Europe. And this is our decision to make and only ours. I think all European leaders have to finally rise to this occasion.”