European High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Kaja Kallas at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, 4 December 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE / OLIVIER HOSLET
The EU’s new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Kaja Kallas has said that the billions of dollars in Russian state funds that have been frozen in the EU since the country’s invasion of Ukraine should be used to pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
Kallas said that Ukraine had a legitimate claim for compensation due to “all the damage that Russia has caused”, describing Moscow’s assets held in the EU as “a tool to pressure Russia”.
To date, the EU has only transferred the profits generated by frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, including a $50 billion (€47.5 billion) loan for Ukraine approved by G7 nations at a summit last month, which is to be serviced by the interest payments from frozen Russian assets around the world.
On Tuesday the US Treasury Department announced that it had transferred its portion of $20 billion (€19 billion) from that loan to Ukraine for the purpose of economic and financial aid to the country.
The EU holds around €210 billion in Russian Central Bank assets but has been hesitant to seize the entire sum over fears surrounding the legality of the move and the risks it could pose to the stability of the euro.
Kallas told The Guardian that Europe needed to step up its aid to Ukraine given the risk that US president-elect Donald Trump might cut funding following his inauguration next month. Trump has previously complained that the US was providing too much aid to Ukraine.
“If they [the US] reduce the aid, then we need to continue supporting Ukraine, because I’m worried about what happens if Russia wins,” Kallas told The Guardian, adding “I think we will have more wars, bigger wars.”
