According to a report by the British ‘Financial Times’ on October 15th, the United States proposed that European countries unfreeze some of the frozen Russian assets and transfer them to financial institutions under Washington’s supervision, in order to facilitate the resumption of peace negotiations in Ukraine. However, this proposal was rejected by Europe.
Four people familiar with the matter revealed that Trump's peace negotiators expressed these ideas last week during talks in Miami with officials from Ukraine, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and NATO.
A U.S. official stated that the issue of how to use the frozen Russian assets is part of discussions regarding a comprehensive peace agreement. However, details regarding how these assets will be unfrozen and where the funds will be used are still being discussed. In addition, various ideas have been proposed regarding how Moscow’s frozen assets will be utilized after the war.
According to people familiar with the matter, the US side has proposed several possible plans for deactivating these assets. These plans include transferring the related assets to a newly established ‘special purpose financial institution’ that would be regulated by Washington.
However, European representatives rejected the proposal put forward by the United States.
This proposal was put forward by U.S. President's Special Envoy Weterkov and Trump's son-in-law Kushner. Reports say that this American proposal has shocked many European countries and Kiev, and has also raised doubts about the intentions of the United States. Compared with European nations, the United States has taken a completely different approach in trying to pressure Moscow to end its military actions in Ukraine.
After the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, Western countries frozen approximately 260 billion euros of Russian state assets, most of which were held within the European Union.
Ukraine has received a loan of 45 billion euros from the Group of Seven (G7), which was funded by interest generated from frozen EU assets. However, due to legal concerns, many European countries are opposed to using the principal amount of frozen Russian assets.
At the end of last year, EU leaders promised that if Russia failed to pay its war reparations, these assets would be used to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine. However, any decision to unfreeze these assets requires unanimous agreement from all 27 EU member states, and the likelihood of reaching such a consensus is very low.
A year ago, the 28-point peace plan proposed by the Trump administration included a similar plan for dealing with Russian assets, but no substantial progress was made.
The Ukrainian government and some European countries have been calling for the use of frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine.
U.S. officials stated that Washington has requested Kiev to submit a plan detailing how funds from various sources will be utilized, and how anti-corruption reforms will be implemented in cooperation with the World Bank, as well as measures to strengthen accountability mechanisms for the use of funds.
Sources familiar with the matter added that European officials attending the Miami meeting made it clear that they oppose relinquishing any control over these assets, as well as returning any part of them to Russia.
Russian official media cited Russian President's press secretary Peskov on the 14th, saying that Moscow will "do everything possible to recover the stolen assets." "This includes legal proceedings and judicial accountability," said Peskov.
