EU envoys approve motion to send Ukraine revenues from frozen Russian assets

EU ambassadors on Wednesday, May 8, agreed to use profits from frozen Russian assets to support the Ukraine recovery and its defense against Russian aggression.

That’s according to the press service for the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council, Ukrinform reports.

"EU ambassadors agreed in principle on measures concerning extraordinary revenues stemming from Russia’s immobilised assets. The money will serve to support #Ukraine's recovery and military defence in the context of the Russian aggression," reads the post on X.

The decision is yet to be finalized by the Council of the EU.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the spokesman for the European Commission, Christian Wiegand, said that if the EU member states can reach a quick agreement on the proposals from the European Commission and the High Representative regarding the use of proceeds from the sovereign assets of the Russian Central Bank frozen in the EU, Ukraine will be able to use the first batch of funds from such proceeds before summer.

After the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, world democracies blocked Russian financial assets exceeding the amount of EUR 300 billion. According to some estimates, most of these assets are located in financial institutions within European Union, including in Belgium.

According to open sources, Euroclear currently has EUR 192 billion worth of assets of the Russian 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 over the past two years.