Lipavský: EU approves transfer of revenues from frozen Russian assets, 90% to army

The European Union has approved the transfer of profits from Russia's frozen assets to Ukraine. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský wrote about this in X on 21 May.

Ukraine may receive up to €3bn this year. 90% of this amount is earmarked for the needs of the army.

"Russia must compensate for the damage caused by the war," he said.

Confiscation of Russian assets

• Ukraine has been asking its allies to transfer frozen Russian funds to it, but so far there has been agreement only to transfer the profits from these funds. This refers to the profits accumulated after 15 February 2024, when the EU countries agreed to use these funds for Ukraine's needs, primarily to buy weapons. We are talking about an amount of about €3 billion a year. The €5 billion accumulated before this agreement will not be transferred. The "agreement in principle" to provide Ukraine with the proceeds of the frozen funds was discussed back in March.
• Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba explained that the frozen assets in Germany ($6.5 billion), Austria ($1.8 billion), Ireland ($2 billion) and Poland ($1.13 billion) would be enough to help rebuild more than 3,500 damaged or destroyed educational institutions, including 1,700 schools, more than 1,000 kindergartens and 586 universities.
• Austria opposed the use of Russian money to arm Kyiv, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European diplomat Josep Borrell have said.
• In April, during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Italy, Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said that G7 members were considering using frozen Russian assets worth almost $300 billion as collateral for loans to Ukraine. 
• When the US passed legislation on financing assistance to Ukraine, the document included provisions on the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Kyiv. In the United States, this amount is more than $6 billion, but there has been no official information on this matter so far.
• In early May, the Financial Times reported that the G7 stopped discussing the confiscation of frozen Russian assets. The G7 fears that full confiscation would violate international law and set a precedent. Instead, they are exploring other ways to use such assets.
• In May, Ukraine's Justice Minister Denys Malyuska said that the G7 summit in Italy next month could decide to transfer some of the Russian funds to Ukraine. 
• G7 finance ministers in Italy were to discuss options for transferring frozen Russian funds to Ukraine. The United States and the United Kingdom propose to provide Ukraine with a loan of tens of billions instead of providing small amounts of money.