Four EU Countries Have Called For The Use Of Russia's Frozen Assets To Benefit Ukraine
- 27.08.2026, 22:55
We're talking about 210 billion euros.
Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, and Sweden have called on the European Union to revisit the issue of using frozen Russian assets to provide further financial support to Ukraine. This is stated in a joint letter from the foreign ministers of the four countries, according to “Polish Radio”.
The appeal was addressed to European Union leadership, including the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, and Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee. Ireland will hold the presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2026.
The ministers emphasized that there are still no signs that Russia is prepared to end its aggression against Ukraine, and that the consequences of the war are being felt more and more acutely by the EU member states themselves. Therefore, Kyiv needs additional short-term and long-term financial support.
According to the authors of the letter, the European Union, together with its international partners, must provide Ukraine with predictable, long-term financing that meets its needs. To this end, the ministers propose resuming technical and legal work on a mechanism for utilizing Russian state assets.
In December 2025, EU leaders agreed on a 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine for the years 2026–2027. In April 2026, the Council of the EU finally approved this instrument. Of the total amount, approximately 30 billion euros is earmarked to support the Ukrainian economy and budget, while another 60 billion is intended for defense needs.
The European Union raises these funds on financial markets backed by EU budget guarantees. Ukraine will be required to repay the loan only after receiving reparations from Russia. According to the EU Council, this amount covers about two-thirds of Ukraine’s projected external financing needs for 2026–2027.
“The loan to support Ukraine is already yielding significant results, but we all understand that this is not enough,” the ministers’ letter states.
The European Union has frozen approximately 210 billion euros in assets belonging to the Central Bank of Russia. About 185 billion euros are held at the Belgian international depository Euroclear. Until now, the EU has primarily channeled the income generated from these funds to Ukraine, without touching the Russian assets themselves.
Previous attempts to agree on a broader use of Russian funds have met with objections from Belgium. Brussels pointed to potential legal and financial risks and feared that the main responsibility would fall on the country where the majority of the assets are located.
Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, and Sweden are proposing to develop a mechanism whereby legal and economic risks would be shared among all EU member states, and no single country would bear a disproportionately large burden.