EU to give Ukraine billions of dollars in profits from frozen Russian assets

The European Union announced on Tuesday that it will allocate interest from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. The group sanctioned Russia in 2022 after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. EU countries stalled about $225 billion in assets from the Central Bank of Russia. Net profits from the frozen funds will be used to support Ukraine’s military and reconstruction efforts, according to the Council of the European Union.

What would the funding be used for? About 90 percent of fund proceeds will go to military support for Ukraine, said Czech Republic Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky on social media. Up to 74 billion crowns, or about $3 billion, may be transferred to Ukraine from proceeds in this year alone, he added. Profits from the frozen assets would be bi-annually paid to the EU, with about 90 percent going to a fund for Ukraine called the European Peace Facility. The remaining 10 percent would be used to fund different EU programs.

What’s happening with the rest of the money? Leaders have not decided what will become of the frozen assets. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba requested on Tuesday that the EU speed up the confiscation process of Russian assets. The 2024 Group of 7 summit listed supporting Ukraine with Russian financial assets as a main issue discussion topic for the upcoming meeting on finance, according to Tuesday’s statement.

Dig deeper: Read my report on legislation to release $5 billion in Russian bank assets frozen by the United States in 2022 to Ukraine.