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Europe will seek to use revenue generated from frozen Russia assets to fund Ukraine, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Wednesday.
Speaking at the Semafor World Economy Summit, Lindner said that the plan wouldn’t involve fully confiscating the assets, but “using the revenues out of these assets to ... support Ukraine.”
“This is the next step we’re about to introduce,” Lindner said.
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The EU, where the majority of frozen Russian assets are held, have discussed a plan to press ahead to use the profits generated from over $200 billion in Russian central bank assets that were confiscated in retaliation for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The plan would generate an estimated $3 billion per year, the EU’s top diplomat has said. The U.S. has been in favor of a more assertive proposal, with U.S. officials proposing raising tens of billions in debt for Ukraine secured against the future profits generated by Russian frozen assets, the Financial Times reported.
The proposals are expected to be discussed on the sidelines of World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, D.C. this week.
Lindner said Europe “should not harm the idea of state immunity because the negative side effects are not foreseeable. ... We cannot harm the international rule-based order.”
While some U.S. officials and politicians have argued in favor of confiscating the assets, European officials have been concerned that seizing Russian assets would violate core tenets of the global economy and dent the reputation of European financial markets.
