European Union countries have agreed to use profits from Russian central bank assets frozen within the EU to provide Ukraine with military support and reconstruction aid.
The EU member nations reached the deal on Tuesday.
The EU is holding about 210 billion euros, or about 225 billion dollars, worth of Russian central bank assets in the region. The funds were frozen when Russia was sanctioned in response to its military invasion of Ukraine.
The interest on the money is expected to provide around 3 billion euros, or around 3.3 billion dollars, per year.
The EU reports it plans to use 90 percent of those profits to provide military aid to Ukraine. It says the remaining 10 percent will be used to help reconstruct Ukraine and for other purposes. The funding could start as early as July.
Russia’s presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has indicated that Moscow will challenge the EU’s moves.
Peskov said there will be “very serious judicial and legal costs for those who make such decisions and who take advantage of such decisions.”
The United States has passed a law that allows the government to seize Russian state assets and use them to support Ukraine. But the law calls for the US to work with other Group of Seven countries, the EU and other parties.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed his country’s gratitude for the EU’s decision at a news conference in Kyiv. He appeared at the conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock.
Kuleba said that the EU should actually confiscate Russia’s assets.
Baerbock replied cautiously to the suggestion. She noted that confiscating the assets would involve many risks. She also indicated that Germany does not want to take a big step.
