Belgium to give all interest from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine reconstruction

Belgium will give all the interest received from the Russian assets frozen in the country for Ukraine reconstruction, its prime minister said following the meeting with the Ukrainian president on Thursday.

In March, Belgium decided to allocate part of the interest from the tax on frozen assets to support Ukraine, but its government would like to use all the interest received for this purpose, prime minister Alexander de Croo said.

"We are now exploring how we can fully utilise the proceeds of these Russian assets to support Ukraine's reconstruction," Mr de Croo was quoted as saying, adding that Belgium is ready to play a leading role in this process in the European commission.

Belgium has frozen Russian assets worth a total of EUR 58 billion and has blocked Russian financial transactions worth 191 billion euros, according to its financial ministry data.

In April, the Belgian government announced that it received an additional EUR 625 million in last year’s taxation of income from frozen Russian assets worth EUR 250 billion last year, including those on the Euroclear platform registered in the country.