EU allocates first €1.5 bln from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s defense and reconstruction

On July 26, the European Commission will transfer the first tranche of 1.5 billion euros to Ukraine from frozen Russian assets for the defense and reconstruction of our country.

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, reported this.

"There is no better symbol or use of the Kremlin's money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live," the head of the European Commission emphasized.

As the European official noted, the money will be transferred through the European Peace Fund and to the Ukraine Facility program to support Ukraine's military potential and recovery.

"Today we transfer €1.5 billion in proceeds from immobilized Russian assets to the defense and reconstruction of Ukraine," von der Leyen noted.

The transferred funds are profits received by EU operators from Russian sovereign assets frozen in Europe.

For reference:

On June 14, at the G7 Summit in Italy, the leaders of the G7 countries agreed to allocate about 50 billion US dollars to Ukraine by the end of the year. The funds will be serviced and repaid through future earnings from frozen sovereign Russian assets located in the European Union and other jurisdictions.

It should be noted that European Union countries are not currently participating directly in providing the $50 billion loan planned by the "Big Seven" group for Ukraine.

Subsequently, on June 24, the countries of the European Union approved the first tranche of military aid for Ukraine in the amount of 1.4 billion euros, which will come from the revenues from frozen Russian assets.

It is worth adding that the United States is ready to lend Ukraine $50 billion, which will be repaid with profits from frozen Russian assets, provided that the European Union can extend sanctions against Moscow indefinitely.

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.