Poland, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden push EU to revive frozen Russian assets debate

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BRUSSELS — The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden today called on Brussels to return to the controversial topic of leveraging Russia’s frozen state assets to plug the gaping hole in Ukraine’s war-ravaged budget.

The four countries issued the rallying call in a letter, seen by POLITICO, to the European Commission’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, and Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee, ahead of next week’s informal gathering of fellow foreign ministers in Wicklow, Ireland.

The letter, dated August 27, throws weight behind earlier calls to return to the Russian asset debate amid concerns that Kyiv will soon run out of money again. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday revealed that he’s already facing a €23 billion defense funding hole.

“Ukraine needs more financial support in both the short and long term,” said the letter, which copied in the Commission’s economy and enlargement bosses, Valdis Dombrovskis and Marta Kos. “We believe now is the time to revert to the issue of how we can make further use of Russia’s immobilised assets for the benefit of Ukraine.”

EU leaders in December failed to agree on a plan that would leverage €210 billion of frozen Russian state assets, most of which reside in the Brussels-based depository Euroclear, to underpin a massive loan to Kyiv. Belgium resisted the plan and demanded unlimited guarantees from the rest of the EU to protect itself against a legal and financial backlash from Moscow, a request that EU leaders deemed too steep.

EU leaders instead decided to raise common debt from financial markets to fund a €90 billion loan to Ukraine. The EU will disburse the loan over the next 18 months, subject to reforms that the Ukrainian government must carry out.

Zelenskyy wants the EU to frontload the money now, although it’ll be difficult to convince all EU capitals to advance the funds without Kyiv implementing the reforms first.

The Belgian government has in recent weeks said it’s open to returning to the Russian assets debate but reaffirmed its demands on the rest of the bloc to provide financial safeguards against Russian retaliation — a key issue that has not gone unnoticed in The Hague, Madrid, Stockholm, and Warsaw.

“We are well aware that this question is complex, and that we must look for solutions that take legitimate interests into account,” said the letter, calling on the Commission’s experts to explore “new options” that “ensure that the risk rests with all EU Member States and where no Member State holds a disproportionate burden.”