EU member states agree to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine

BRUSSELS - Ambassadors of EU member states reached an agreement "in principle" Wednesday on a plan to use the profits from frozen Russian central bank assets to arm Ukraine, officials said.

"The money will serve to support Ukraine's recovery and military defence in the context of the Russian aggression," Belgium, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, said in a post on X.

"There could be no stronger symbol and no greater use for that money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live," added EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

The agreement concerns the use of interest and other profits from the assets, but not the underlying assets themselves, which will remain frozen. The move could yield as much as EUR 3 billion for aid this year alone.

According to the European Commission, around EUR 210 billion worth of Russian Central Bank assets are frozen in the EU. The Brussels-based financial institution Euroclear, which holds the lion's share of the assets, recently announced that the assets had made around EUR 4.4 billion in interest in 2023.