Already this year, Ukraine could receive $4 billion from Russian assets frozen by the EU and the Group of Seven (G7) countries, Deputy Justice Minister Iryna Mudra told Forbes Ukraine in an interview published on Feb. 14.
The sum could go up to $15-$18 billion over the next four years, she added.
Western countries and other partners immobilized around $300 billion of the Russian Central Bank's assets at the start of the full-scale invasion. Since then, Washington, Brussels, and Kyiv have discussed legal ways of channeling these funds to aid Ukraine's reconstruction efforts but have yet to come to a definitive conclusion.
Roughly two-thirds of Russian assets are held in the EU, mainly at the Brussels-based securities depository Euroclear.
The EU has been hesitant to confiscate Russian assets outright, fearing legal pitfalls and possible retribution by Russia. Instead, the EU proposed a plan last December to seize about 15 billion euros ($16 billion) in projected profits generated by frozen assets of Russia's Central Bank and transfer them to Ukraine.
According to Mudra, the European Commission has already made the decision to concentrate frozen Russian assets in one institution, which is a necessary first step. The EU recently agreed to isolate the immobilized Russian funds, possibly paving the way for the revenue to be eventually redirected to Ukraine.
As a second step, the EU must introduce legislation that would enable the bloc to transfer the money to Ukraine, Mudra added.
"We had talks with representatives of Belgium, which currently chairs the EU Council. There is cautious optimism that the EU Council will make a decision by the end of June 2024," the deputy minister said.
Ukraine would receive the funds through the Ukraine Facility mechanism, under which the EU allocated 50 billion euros ($54 billion) to Kyiv in four-year funding.
Andrew Kosenko
