Kiev will receive €1.4 billion, the interest accrued on frozen funds, early next month, the bloc’s top diplomat has said
The EU has announced when it will begin transferring Russian funds to Ukraine. The bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said that the first tranche of interest accruing on some €300 billion in frozen Russian assets, totaling €1.4 billion, will be sent to Kiev in the first week of August to finance arms purchases.
Borrell has stated that the funds will be used to address Ukraine’s key military needs, including air defense, artillery, “and also, and this is new, procurement for the Ukrainian defense industry.”
“So, we are not only going to provide military support to Ukraine, but also support from Ukraine itself. This is certainly the most logical and efficient approach,” Borrell concluded.
The EU and G7 group of nations froze some $280 billion (€260 billion) of sovereign funds belonging to the Central Bank of Russia shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The majority of these frozen funds are held within the EU, primarily in the Belgium-based depositary and clearing house Euroclear.
Earlier this year, EU authorities approved a plan enabling the appropriation of interest accrued on the frozen funds to support Ukraine’s recovery and military defense. According to the agreement, 90% of the funds are expected to be channeled into an EU-managed fund for Ukrainian military aid, while the remaining 10% will be allocated to assisting Kiev in other ways.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that any actions taken to transfer its assets without its consent would constitute “theft,” asserting that accessing these funds or engaging in similar actions would violate international law and trigger retaliation.
Earlier this year, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that the expropriation of Russian sovereign assets could set a dangerous precedent and become a “solid nail in the coffin” of the Western economic system. He emphasized that Moscow would inevitably retaliate against such a move by initiating legal proceedings against entities that access its assets.