Ukraine is now begging the EU and US for $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years at a moment its prospects on the battlefield look no better than a year ago. This reportedly includes an ask of $800 billion for "reconstruction" and $700 billion for "military purposes".

Politico is reporting Friday that EU leadership has circulated a confidential document to European heads of state outlining Ukraine's financial needs for the initial $800 billion for rebuilding the country - a figure which Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said would be comparable to "the detonation of an atomic bomb." Orbán made the remarks Friday following an emergency EU summit in Brussels.

"The 18-page document outlines a 10-year plan to guarantee Ukraine's recovery with a fast-tracked path toward EU membership," Politico writes after obtaining the document. "The European Commission circulated the plans with EU capitals ahead of the leaders’ summit Thursday evening where the document, dated Jan. 22, was addressed, according to three EU officials and diplomats who were granted anonymity to talk about the sensitive topic."

According to further details, "The funding strategy stretches until 2040 alongside an immediate 100-day operational plan to get the project off the ground. But the prosperity plan will struggle to attract outside investment if the conflict rumbles on, according to the world’s largest money manager, BlackRock, which is advising on the reconstruction plan in a pro-bono capacity."

Various institutions alongside the US and EU government plan to contribute according to these broad milestones envisioned in the document:

• Over the next ten, the EU, US, and major international lenders — including the IMF and World Bank — are lining up roughly $500 billion in combined public and private funding for Ukraine, according to the document.

• The European Commission plans to commit another €100 billion in taxpayer-backed funds via budget support and investment guarantees under the EU’s next seven-year budget starting in 2028.

• Brussels claims that this €100 billion outlay would "unlock" as much as €207 billion in additional investment 

• Washington, for its part, says it will mobilize capital through a bespoke US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, notably without attaching a price tag.

• The US also signaled plans to funnel investment into Ukraine's critical minerals, infrastructure, energy, and technology sectors, aligning reconstruction with long-term strategic and resource interests - an earlier theme sounded by the Trump administration.

Naturally, neither Politico nor much of the mainstream media have commented on how deeply unpopular all this will be for domestic populations, and especially MAGA in the US will likely greet this as merely setting up for another theft of taxpayer funds for corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs. 

And ironically this document for long-term funding is being revealed less than 24 hours after President Zelensky got up before the WEF audience in Davos and positively scolded EU governments for supposed 'inaction' and for being 'fragmented' and weak...

Biting the hand that feeds you... or also humiliating the EU while the bloc shovels billions in cash your way.

And: this speech is not gonna go down well. Europeans just approved a 90 billion euro package - fresh cash, not Russian assets - certainly not insignificant.

But Politico does inject a little realism at least, in quoting a BlackRock executive at Davos:

"Think about it. If you're a pension fund, you're fiduciary towards your clients, your pensioners. It's nearly impossible to invest into a war zone," BlackRock’s vice chairman, Philipp Hildebrand, said Wednesday in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "I think it has to be sequenced and that's going to take some time."

In the meantime, over in Moscow President Putin just made clear to the US delegation led by Steve Witkoff that the question of territory remains a red line. Russia has further signaled Ukraine is not going to look the same in any post-conflict scenario, especially in terms of geographic boundaries.

This unprecedented proposed long-term funding plan should infuriate American taxpayers...

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov made clear Friday that the military will continue to consistently pursue the objectives ... on the battlefield, where the Russian armed forces hold the strategic initiative." This means, as BlackRock's Hildebrand acknowledged, the conflict which is about to enter its fifth year is going to drag on.