Borrell proposes to use 90% of income from frozen Russian assets to purchase weapons for Ukraine

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, proposes to use 90% of the proceeds from frozen Russian assets to purchase weapons for the Ukrainian army, reports Reuters.

10% will be transferred to the EU budget in order to use them to increase the potential of the Ukrainian defense industry.

Borrell noted that the proposal consists precisely in the use of profits from assets located in Europe, and not the assets themselves. According to him, this can bring about 3 billion euros a year.

The head of European diplomacy promises to present this plan to EU member states before the summit of EU leaders on March 21-22.

On January 23, it was reported that the EU plans to apply a tax on excess profits from the frozen assets of the Central Bank of Russia, but without confiscation of funds. A group of countries, including Germany, made it clear that they are against the seizure of Russian assets for legal reasons.

However, on January 29, EU ambassadors reached an "in-principle" agreement on using profits from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.

On January 6, 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy estimated Russia's foreign assets available for confiscation at $300 billion and called for these funds to be used to support Ukraine.

After the massive missile attack on February 7, Zelenskyy said that one of Ukraine's tasks for 2024 is to inflict maximum systemic losses on Russia. In particular, according to him, this applies to frozen Russian assets – both of the terrorist state and of persons connected with it.

On February 12, the Council of the EU took a step towards the use of Russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine by adopting a decision obliging European depositories to keep separate records of frozen securities and income from them. Depositories are also prohibited from disposing of profits received from operations with these assets.