Council of the EU approves using revenues from frozen Russian assets in support of Ukraine

The relevant statement was made by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavský on the social media platform X, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“We have approved in the EU using revenues from Russia’s central bank’s frozen assets to help Ukraine. Up to EUR 3B only this year, 90% goes for Ukraine’s military. Russia must pay for its war damages,” the Czech official wrote.

A reminder that, on May 8, 2024, EU Ambassadors endorsed a decision to use Russian immobilized assets in support of Ukraine’s recovery and military defense in the context of Russian aggression.

Today, May 21, 2024, the above decision was finalized at the level of the Council of the EU.

With the start of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, world democracies blocked Russian financial assets, totaling more than EUR 300 billion. Most of these assets are believed to be located in financial institutions within the European Union, namely in Belgium.

According to the data from open sources, Euroclear currently has EUR 192 billion worth of the assets of Russia’s central bank on its balance sheet. The EU is looking for legal mechanisms to further deal with these immobilized resources, as well as the interest accrued on them, which has reached EUR 5 billion in the past two years.