Austria supports using income from frozen Russian assets to boost Ukraine’s defense

Austria favors the European Union's plan to allocate unexpected profits from the frozen assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for the benefit of Ukraine and will not hinder the EU from funding its defense requirements.

The Federal Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria reports this, according to Ukrinform.

"Austria supports the plan to provide Ukraine with income from the investment of funds of the Russian Central Bank," the foreign policy department commented.

The ministry explained that the provision on the use of windfall profits, which is currently being developed within the EU, refers to the use of income from the investment of immobilized assets of the Russian central bank and not to the confiscation of these assets.

"We are not talking about the confiscation of the Central Bank's funds, but about the use of income received from investments," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted.

Meanwhile, the agency stressed that Austria will maintain its stance of not impeding the EU's decision-making on supplying and funding weapons and ammunition for Ukraine.

For reference:

On February 24, the Group of Seven (G7) countries issued a statement in which they confirmed that they would keep frozen Russian assets in their jurisdictions until the end of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.

It is worth adding in July. The funds will be directed to the supply of weapons and the development of the defense industry.

On March 19, the Head of Diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, proposed to use 90% of the revenues from the Russian Federation's assets frozen in Europe to purchase weapons for Ukraine through the European Peace Fund.

On May 8, EU permanent representatives on Wednesday agreed to use the proceeds from frozen Russian assets to support the recovery of Ukraine and its military defense against Russian aggression.

According to open information, Euroclear currently has 192 billion euros of Russian Central Bank assets on its balance sheet. The EU is looking for legal mechanisms to deal further with these frozen resources and the interest accrued on them, which has reached €5 billion over the past two years.