Ukraine crunch-time: Europe caves to Russia's threats

But the Kremlin should hardly be popping the champagne corks

Russia’s threats have paid off. After 16 hours of negotiations, European leaders have baulked at taking Moscow’s frozen assets and using them to fund Ukraine’s survival.

The European Council, comprising the bloc’s leaders, met into the early hours of Friday morning to thrash out a solution to financing Ukraine’s self-defence against Russia’s illegal inva…