Please follow us on Truth Social, X, Youtube, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, GETTR, Gab, Instagram
The Trump administration has asked Europe to unfreeze part of the Russian state assets blocked by the West and transfer them to a structure under Washington’s control, in order to resume the stalled Ukraine peace talks. Europe said no.
The Financial Times reported, citing four people familiar with the matter, that the proposal by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner was put to officials from Ukraine, France, Germany, the UK, the European Union and NATO at a set of talks in Miami last week. The FT says the U.S. officials outlined a number of different ways in which some of the money could be “unfrozen” and released, including by moving it into a new special-purpose financial vehicle overseen by Washington.
A U.S. official said the frozen assets were discussed within the framework of a comprehensive peace agreement and that how they would be released and where the money would be spent was still to be decided.
The Europeans promptly shot this down. The Europeans were not willing to give control of the frozen assets to anyone, and would not return any of the assets to Moscow. “They were told that this was just simply not going to happen,” one source told the FT. The proposal also worried Europeans and Kyiv, who questioned Washington’s intentions and its different approach to pressuring Moscow.
The potential sum of money is massive. Around 260 billion euros in Russian money have been frozen by the governments of the West after the 2022 invasion. More than 210 billion euros of these funds are held in the European Union. Much of it sits at the Belgian depository Euroclear. The interest paid on these funds already backs a G7 loan to Ukraine of about 45 billion euros, Business Standard reported, citing the FT. But unfreezing the principal would require the unanimous agreement of all 27 EU member states.
This was not the first offer. An earlier proposal for economic incentives put forward by Witkoff and Kushner, aimed at encouraging a partial ceasefire by Russia, included unfreezing billions of dollars worth of assets in advance of such a truce, the sale of a stake in Russian oil company Lukoil to investors from the Middle East, and a relaxation of sanctions on the potash exports of Belarus, Meduza reported, citing the New York Times.
The asset plan also arrives alongside a diesel arrangement. In Miami meetings with Ukrainian officials, Witkoff and Kushner reportedly described a separate agreement to permit the export of Russian diesel to U.S. and global markets, more than 2.25 million barrels at first. Reuters reported that the two envoys also urged the Ukrainians to stop striking Russian oil refineries, so that Washington could press Moscow to answer with steps towards peace.
Washington also is pressing Ukraine to lay out how any funds would be spent. It wants the country to work with the World Bank on a series of measures to boost transparency and root out corruption, the FT said.
Leaders in Europe late last year said they would use these assets to help rebuild Ukraine should Moscow refuse to pay reparations, and the Trump administration’s 28-point peace plan also proposed using these same assets in a settlement. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni has told parliament the diesel deal with Moscow risks legitimizing Russia and weakening sanctions.
The largest pile of Russian money outside of Russia is at the center of a tug-of-war between the US and European capitals. While Washington would like to use this money to broker a deal with Moscow, the European capitals are keen to keep the assets frozen, to keep control of them and to ensure that they are never returned to Russia.
