BRUSSELS: EU member states reached agreement on Wednesday on a plan to use billions of euros in profits from frozen Russian central bank assets to arm Ukraine and fund its post-war reconstruction.

Moscow has made a string of battlefield gains in recent months, pressing its manpower and weapons advantage as Kyiv awaited critical new Western aid more than two years into the conflict.

With Washington finally set to deliver on a long-stalled aid package, Kyiv’s other major backer the European Union has also been pushing for months to find more funds. Leaders of the 27-nation bloc agreed in March to move ahead with the assets proposal, expected to unlock some three billion euros ($3.3 billion) a year, leaving diplomats to hammer out the details.

Posting on X, the bloc’s Belgian presidency said EU ambassadors had “agreed in principle on measures concerning extraordinary revenues stemming from Russia’s immobilised assets”.

It said the funds would “serve to support Ukraine’s recovery and military defence in the context of the Russian aggression,” with a first tranche expected to be freed up in July.

“There could be no stronger symbol and no greater use for that money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live,” added EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

The EU froze around 200 billion euros of Russian central bank assets held in the bloc as part of punishing sanctions imposed on Moscow for sending troops into its neighbour in February 2022.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2024