EU taps interest from frozen Russian assets to give €1.4 billion to Ukraine
The European Commission has announced a new financial aid package for the cash-strapped Ukrainian government using the revenue generated from frozen Russian assets. The sum of €1.4 billion ($1.63 billion) would largely be spent on covering Kiev’s debts to its Western backers, the statement said.
Ukraine’s Western supporters froze $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The majority is held at the Belgian-based Euroclear depository. In late 2023, the EU decided it could tap the annual revenues generated by the assets by declaring them ‘windfall profits’ that do not count as part of the foreign sovereign assets it could not legally confiscate.
Russia has said it considers any use of its frozen assets to be theft. It also warned it could retaliate by seizing €200 billion in Western assets held in Russia, but has so far refrained from doing so.
The package in April is the fourth tranche using the interest from the frozen funds, according to the commission’s statement. The previous tranche was delivered in August 2025. According to Brussels, “95% of the proceeds will be used to support Ukraine via the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism,” which was developed to assist Kiev in repaying loans from the EU and G7 nations.
The announcement comes as Ukraine faces a massive budget shortfall, with a projected deficit of around $53 billion for 2025-28 and a forecasted 18.4% deficit in the 2026 budget. El Pais reported in October 2025 that the Ukrainian government could run out of money as early as this month.
In December, the Bank of Russia filed a lawsuit against Euroclear in a Moscow court seeking $232 billion in compensation for frozen assets and lost profits.
The regulator additionally announced that it could expand its lawsuit over frozen assets beyond the Belgian-based depository to include European banks that also hold its funds.
