Ukraine to get revenues from frozen Russian assets

This was reported by Espreso correspondent Tetiana Vysotska

"On Monday, January 22, a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council was held in Brussels. The meeting was attended by the EU foreign ministers. Today we got to know that yesterday they decided to transfer to Ukraine all the proceeds from the frozen assets of the Russian Federation in the EU. This is very good news. This has been talked about for a long time, but no real action has been taken. It is worth recalling that more than €200 billion of the Russian Central Bank's assets have been frozen in the EU. Today, more than €1.5 billion of the income from these funds is kept in accounts in Belgium. It is this money that is planned to be transferred to Ukraine," Vysotska said.

The correspondent also said that the decision to confiscate Russian assets in favour of Ukraine has not yet been made

"However, as for the confiscation of frozen Russian assets, this issue is still under consideration. Europeans are still afraid to rush into this issue. Even the IMF is against this step, as they believe it could lead to a collapse in the financial markets. Therefore, there are discussions, but the decision was made only on revenues," she added.

What is known about the confiscation of Russian assets

On November 30, the US Senate introduced a bill to confiscate Russian assets. On January 11, the Biden administration supported the confiscation of Russian assets for transfer to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the European Commission has a plan to raise €15 billion from Russia's frozen assets to provide financial assistance to Ukraine.

At the same time, Russia has estimated that the West could lose assets and investments worth at least $288 billion if it confiscates frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine, and said Moscow would retaliate.

On January 22, media reported that EU foreign ministers were approaching an agreement on how to use the frozen Russian assets.

Later, Belgian Ambassador to the United States Jean-Arthur Regibeau said that Western countries should make a collective decision to confiscate frozen Russian assets, most of which are held in the Brussels-based Euroclear settlement centre.