BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday he would call for the European Union to use Russian assets frozen in the West to provide a 140 billion euro ($163 billion) loan to Ukraine to finance its war effort at the upcoming EU summit. Merz first advocated for an interest-free EU loan backed by the frozen assets in late September. “We do not want to do this in order to prolong the war, but to end it,” Merz said in a speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament.