US wants to return Russia’s frozen assets after signing peace deal on Ukraine, - Politico
The United States would like to return Russia's sovereign assets frozen in the EU as part of sanctions after the signing of a future peace agreement on Russia's war against Ukraine.
This was reported by Politico, according to Censor.NET.
As noted, during the visit of EU sanctions envoy David O'Sullivan to Washington, US officials made it clear that their plan envisages the return of assets after the conclusion of any peace plan. Despite this, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen continued to promote the idea of using Russian funds to support Ukraine.
In her speech on 10 September, von der Leyen said that the EU plans to use the assets to finance Ukraine through a reparations loan. One diplomat called it an attempt to put a "European stamp" on these assets.
After the leak in November of Donald Trump's original 28-point "peace plan," it became known that he had proposed investing $100 billion of these assets in the reconstruction of Ukraine under US leadership. The rest of the funds were to be directed to a "separate US-Russian mechanism."
This caused tension, as the EU reacted negatively to the possibility that the US would receive part of the assets and agree on their distribution with Russia.
Russian assets to help Ukraine
- Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed using frozen Russian assets as collateral for providing Ukraine with "reparations loan". Formally, Russian assets under sanctions will not be confiscated, but Ukraine will repay such loans only after Russia pays reparations.
- According to various estimates, the European Union's "reparation loan" to Ukraine, secured by Russian assets, could amount to €130-140 billion. Its final size will be determined after the International Monetary Fund assesses Ukraine's financing needs in 2026 and 2027.
- In total, Euroclear has currently accumulated more than €175 billion in cash from frozen Russian assets, which could be used to secure a new loan. But before the EU agrees to grant a reparations loan, it will want to repay the G7 loan to Ukraine of €45 billion ($50 billion) agreed last year, which was to be repaid from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets.
