US urged Europeans to oppose EU plan for loan using Russian assets for Ukraine - Bloomberg
Kyiv • UNN
The US is trying to block EU plans to use frozen assets of the Russian central bank to support a loan to Ukraine. Washington believes that these assets are necessary to secure a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.
The US has lobbied several European Union countries, trying to block EU plans to use frozen Russian central bank assets to support a huge loan to Ukraine, citing European diplomats familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports, writes UNN.
Details
According to diplomats, American officials "argued to the bloc's member states that these assets are necessary to secure a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow and should not be used to prolong the war."
Washington, the publication notes, viewed Russian assets as part of its proposals to enable peace talks with Moscow and suggested they could be used to finance US-led post-war investments. The 28-point US peace plan has been modified since its emergence last month, but assets remain one of the key stumbling blocks, along with the status of Ukrainian territories and providing Ukraine with reliable security guarantees, some sources say.
European leaders insist that the use of assets is a European matter, as the frozen funds are mostly held in Europe.
"There is no way to leave the money we mobilize to the US," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday.
"The American government knows this, and this is also the negotiating position of the German government," he said. "This is also a consensus at the European level. There is absolutely no disagreement on this. This money must go to Ukraine – it must help Ukraine."
The EU's plan to use the assets also faces internal resistance, particularly from Belgium, where most of the funds are held.
Merz will travel to Brussels on Friday for talks with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to try to break Belgium's resistance to the EU plan.
Merz, who has been a strong advocate for using Russian assets to help Ukraine, told reporters that he takes the Belgian prime minister's concerns "very seriously" and that he will try to address them at Friday's meeting.
"I don't want to talk him into it, but rather convince him," he said at a press conference on Thursday evening in Berlin after talks with German regional leaders. "If we go this way, we will do it to help Ukraine, perhaps over the next two or three years."
Belgium argues that it has not yet received sufficient guarantees that it will not be left alone to pay any future bills if Moscow wins any future claims for the return of assets. It is also noted that the use of frozen funds would expose Europe and its companies to Russian sanctions, the publication writes.
Belgium's national budget has received hundreds of millions of euros in tax revenues from frozen funds, although it is claimed that this money is being used to aid Ukraine.
Belgium's current rejection of the plan remains a major obstacle to its approval ahead of the EU leaders' summit later this month, where the bloc will seek to approve the proposals.
The EU has proposed to support the loan with the bloc's budget or through bilateral guarantees from member states. The assets would remain frozen, and Ukraine would only have to repay it if Russia agrees to finance the country's reconstruction and compensate it for war damages.
In addition to Belgium, Hungary opposes these plans, and Slovakia has stated that it will not support proposals that provide military support to Ukraine. Approval would only require a qualified majority of member states.
Addition
This week, the EU proposed using frozen assets to support a €90 billion ($105 billion) loan to cover Ukraine's economic and military needs over the next two years. There are about €210 billion in frozen Russian assets in the EU, and more could be used from 2028, the publication writes.
The European Commission also proposed the possibility of issuing joint EU debt in case they cannot reach an agreement on the use of frozen assets. But the bloc's member states, including Germany, reject this idea, and the fact that it requires unanimity makes it unlikely, the publication notes.