The European Union should confiscate over €200 billion of frozen Russian assets within the EU and transfer them to Ukraine, according to Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.

Source: Tsahkna ahead of an informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen on 30 August, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Estonia believes that Russia’s frozen assets should be confiscated and handed over to Ukraine.

“We need to confiscate the Russian frozen assets and use this money for Ukraine. We are talking about more than 200 billion euros, which Europe has, and there is no reason why we are not taking this money and giving it to Ukraine,” Tsahkna stressed.

He noted that supporting Ukraine requires enormous resources, and this support must continue over the long term.

"There are no legal reasons why we cannot do this. This is only a political reason, and we don’t have this consensus. So today we will discuss these opportunities, and Estonia is really heavily pushing this decision to confiscate Russian frozen assets and start using them*,"* the Estonian minister explained.

“I understand the Belgian government very well, because they have more than 200 billion [euros in] frozen assets, and they cannot take the risk alone if there are problems in the future. So we need to form a coalition and find the measures to take down the risks for Belgium,” he added.

Tsahkna emphasised that "Belgium has very legit concerns, but the concerns are not connected in our case with legal reasons".

He concluded that this was much more a question of political will and that, as partners in the Coalition of the Willing, they must find ways to support Belgium and develop measures to reduce risks.

“Russia is crazy about this money. Russia needs this money,” said Margus Tsahkna.

Background:

Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said ahead of the informal ministerial meeting in Copenhagen that frozen assets cannot be returned to Russia after a ceasefire without the payment of reparations.“We are advancing work on Russian frozen assets to support Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated the day before.Earlier reports indicated that the EU could create a fund to facilitate the transfer of nearly €200 billion in Russian assets for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

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