The Euroclear group headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 5 December 2025. Photo: EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS
The Kremlin would be “open to the idea” of some of its frozen foreign assets being used to fund Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction as part of an eventual peace deal, Faridaily, an independent Telegram news channel founded by ex-BBC Russian journalist Farida Rustamova, reported on Monday.
Citing two high-ranking Russian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, Rustamova said Moscow “did not expect” it could regain control of some $280 billion (€240 billion) in frozen assets.
Around $300 billion (roughly €280 billion) in Russian sovereign assets have been frozen globally since the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with over two-thirds (€210 billion) held in the EU, primarily by securities depository Euroclear in Belgium.
“A normal person should treat those frozen assets as written off,” one Kremlin-linked source said when asked about Moscow’s attitude towards Washington’s peace plan for Ukraine, the original draft of which proposed investing $100 billion (€85 billion) in frozen Russian assets “in US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine”, while the rest would be “invested in a separate US-Russian investment vehicle”.
It is unclear whether that proposal has been amended since talks to discuss the plan resumed in recent weeks.
Despite Vladimir Putin asserting during his visit to Kyrgyzstan last week that using frozen Russian assets was akin to the “theft of someone else’s property”, the Kremlin could agree to those funds being used for Ukraine’s post-war recovery — particularly if the recovery fund were placed under international management and if some of the funds were spent on restoring Russian-controlled territories, Faridaily reported.
However, Moscow remains opposed to the EU’s plan to use the frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s military spending over the next two years. Last week, the EU announced a “reparations loan”, under which $104 billion (€90 billion) of frozen Russian assets will be used as collateral for a loan to Ukraine, which Kyiv would repay once it got compensation from Moscow for the devastation caused by its invasion.
However, the move has been met with resistance from the Belgian government, which fears that Russia could hold it liable for an amount equivalent to a third of Belgium’s annual GDP should the assets be unfrozen and transferred to Ukraine.
If the plan is approved at the EU summit set to take place on 18–19 December, it would be “tantamount to a declaration of war,” the Russian official told Faridaily.
