““Ukraine now needs frozen assets to purchase weapons and build housing for people who lost it as a result of the war””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“Now there are 300 billion dollars of frozen Russian assets. They are Ukraine (RF forces – ed.) destroyed, according to estimates of international institutions, by about 800 billion dollars,” he said.
“Ukraine now needs these frozen assets to purchase weapons and build housing for people who lost it as a result of the war,” Zelenskyy emphasized. He noted that “the amount of funds that the Russian Federation receives from the use of the shadow fleet is many times greater than the aid to Ukraine from all allies.”
“I spoke with partners today, gave an example of the shadow fleet of the Russian Federation, which sails through the waters of the European Union and NATO countries. The Russian shadow fleet earns 11-12 billion dollars a month. Let’s multiply by 12 months… I only ask you to compare this money with how much aid Ukraine received. Again, we are grateful for everything, no objections. But only one shadow fleet of the Russian Federation, which was not sanctioned, earned more in almost three years of war than all the world’s aid to Ukraine in this war,” the president said.
At the same time, he emphasized the “insufficiency of sanctions”. In particular, Zelensky reminded that restrictions are not imposed on all banks and not on all energy resources of the Russian Federation.
On October 22, the European Parliament approved aid for Ukraine in the amount of 35 billion euros, which is going to be reimbursed at the expense of profits from frozen Russian assets.
The EU previously announced its intention to provide Ukraine with up to 35 billion euros, with the possibility of reducing this amount if other partners join and the final loan reaches 50 billion dollars. In this way, Brussels tried to insure itself in case it is not possible to attract the USA to participate in this loan.
Washington had previously put forward a condition that sanctions on Russian sovereign assets should be extended for three years instead of six months, but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocked such a possibility of a transition to long-term sanctions. Eventually, Washington removed this condition and joined the general credit.
At the moment, 211 billion dollars of Russian assets are frozen in Europe. Most of them are located in Belgium and are managed by the clearing organization Euroclear, which in 2023 generated 3 billion dollars in profit from these funds. According to estimates in Brussels, the frozen assets should generate profits worth $50 billion over a maximum of 45 years.