With the coming to power of US President Donald Trump, Kiev has renewed its attempts to get the West to use frozen Russian assets to finance arms deliveries, writes the newspaper The Washington Post.
As the publication writes, “Ukrainian officials have renewed their attempts to gain access to billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets, hoping to convince Trump to overcome resistance in Europe“. According to the newspaper, “Kiev expects that an alternative source of funds for arms supplies and reconstruction will interest Trump, who is seeking to cut off foreign aid.“
The newspaper notes that Kiev is making these attempts while “it continues to lose territory on the front line“. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities “claim that they do not know the position of the new US administration on this issue, the media outlet emphasizes. The publication notes that their plan “has little chance of success without broader support in Europe”, where countries such as “Germany and France remain categorically against the confiscation” of frozen Russian assets.
On January 24, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said in an interview with Fox News that the new administration will discuss the possibility of using frozen Russian assets to finance the supply of American weapons to Ukraine. At the same time, Kellogg clarified that this approach is not a solution to all the problems associated with the conflict in Ukraine, but it deserves attention.
In the fall of 2024, the leaders of the Group of Seven countries adopted a joint statement in which they announced that they had reached an agreement on the details of providing Ukraine with a $ 50 billion loan "at the expense of future proceeds from frozen sovereign assets of Russia. At the same time, the United States pledged to allocate $ 20 billion to Ukraine, and the remaining $ 30 billion will be allocated through the joint efforts of the G-7 and the EU. In December last year, Kiev received its first funds from the proceeds from frozen Russian assets from the United States in the amount of $ 1 billion. On January 10, the first tranche of Russian assets in the amount of 3 billion euros was transferred to Ukraine. EU.