European Union leaders emerged from five days of intense talks with a landmark 750 billion euro ($858 billion) plan to rescue the bloc's economies amid the ongoing assault of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exhausted heads of state and government finally voted unanimously in Brussels early Tuesday to jointly issue debt to be disbursed through grants and loans to member nations as they face their worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the agreement by the 27-member group as "truly historic." She and French President Emmanuel Macron spearheaded the effort to push the deal through.

Negotiations over the package pitted some of the EU's strongest economies – including the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Austria — against the grouping's poorer states, such as Spain and Italy. At issue was how the burden would be shared and under what conditions the money would be disbursed.

Most notably, the wealthier nations had sought to ensure that the rescue package be made up mostly of loans. Instead, the huge sum will be split between 360 billion euros ($412 billion) in loans and 390 billion euros ($446 billion) in grants that would not need to be repaid. The money will be raised collectively by selling bonds.

In the five days of talks in the Belgian capital, governments debated not only the terms of the recovery package, but also a seven-year EU budget worth about 1.1 trillion euros ($1.26 trillion).

In a news conference, European Commission President Charles Michel called the agreement a "pivotal moment" for Europe and said it shows the bloc's solidarity at a historically trying time.

"This agreement sends a concrete signal that Europe is a force for action," Michel said.

Fear of failure was apparently strong enough to keep the negotiations – originally scheduled to last just two days – on track for what turned out to be a marathon session. A failed summit amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis, many feared, would have thrown the EU's future as an effective bloc into doubt.

News of the deal pushed the euro to a four-month high of $1.1470.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, seen as a key obstacle to a deal, acknowledged "a few clashes" during the talks but said "that's all part of the game."

Merkel said Europe "has shown it is able to break new ground in a special situation."

"Exceptional situations require exceptional measures," she said at the news conference.

NPR's Rob Schmitz in Berlin contributed to this report.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

The European Union is reportedly hammering out further sanctions to punish Russia for its incursion into eastern Ukraine, with foreign ministers expressing "deep concern" over Moscow's "aggression."NATO has also called on the Kremlin to halt its "illegal military operations" in eastern Ukraine.Meanwhile, pro-Russia separatists, which reportedly include regular Russian army troops in their ranks, have captured the Ukrainian city of Novoazovsk in southern Donetsk province on the coast of the Sea of Azov.NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, who visited Novoazovsk shortly after its capture, tells Weekend Edition Saturday that the city seems calm, but that residents are nervously reticent.In an hour-long visit that was controlled by separatists, Soraya says she spoke to a city administration worker."She was rather frightened and it took me awhile to even get her to give me her first name," Soraya says. "I asked her if she was happy that she'd been liberated and she wouldn't answer."The capture of the city, now part of what the separatists call "the new Russia," came after three days of fighting, according to residents.Soraya tells WESAT host Scott Simon that it's difficult or impossible to tell whether Russian forces are mixed in with the rebels, as the U.S. and European nations claim."[There] seems to be a mix of people here, definitely not locals who are here," she says. "But the separatists claim they do not have any Russians fighting among them, that these are Ukrainians fighters who are here ... that all the weapons and tanks here, and we've seen three tanks here, have been confiscated from the Ukrainians."According to the AP: "None of the half-dozen tanks seen by Associated Press reporters in the town of about 12,000 people bore Russian markings, but the packaging on [the fighters'] field rations said they were issued by the Russian army."NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Friday referred to Russia's "hollow denials" that its troops and equipment had illegally crossed the border into Ukraine. "This is a blatant violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. It defies all diplomatic efforts for a peaceful solution," he said. Earlier this week, President Obama said there is "no doubt that this is not a homegrown, indigenous uprising."As EU foreign ministers met, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, who was invited to speak, appealed for them to give an "appropriate response" over Russian forces being brought into Ukraine, his spokesman said in a Twitter post, according to Reuters."Referring to meetings in Brussels between Poroshenko and EU leaders on Saturday, the spokesman said: 'Poroshenko expressed the hope that the leaders of EU members will give an appropriate response to the act of aggression towards Ukraine."'The bringing of Russian forces onto Ukrainian territory requires an appropriate response from the EU.'"The high-level discussions came amid reports that a Ukrainian Su-25 had been shot down. Soraya reports: "This has been the third jet that in recent days has been shot down. This time, the Ukrainians say it was some sort of Russian missile launcher that brought it down. There has been no response from the Russian side." Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.