Belgium, in particular, has been reluctant to back using the frozen assets as it is nervous about having to shoulder any potential consequences should Russia legally challenge Euroclear, the clearing house where the money is located.

When they are not fighting, they write poetry, letters home or words of praise to their supreme commander,” said one of the directors at Moscow's Museum of Victory.

European leaders want to build on President Trump’s sanctions on Russia with new commitments of financial and military support for Kyiv.

European leaders vowed to work in coordination to ratchet up the pressure on Russia as the so-called “coalition of the willing” met in London to discuss strategies to end the war in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will push allies to provide Ukraine with more long-range missiles to strike Russian targets at a meeting in London on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the United States to expand sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil companies to the whole sector.

The Kremlin is acting yet more clinically and more cynically than it has before. Days before Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky met, missiles and drones had cut off the Ukrainian capital’s water supply. For the first time, the Kyiv metro went dark. Attacks on front-line areas like Sumy and Chernihiv have left parts of those regions without power for days.

A "coalition of the willing" meeting in London seeks to increase pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine.