The European Union (EU) today indefinitely froze Russian assets in Europe worth 210 billion euros until the country pays war reparations to Ukraine.
The EU also did this to ensure that Hungary and Slovakia, which are close to the Kremlin, could not prevent support for Ukraine, which was met with outrage from the leaders of those countries.
European Council President Antonio Costa said that senior European officials pledged in October to "hold Russian immobilized assets until Russia ends its aggressive war against Ukraine and compensates for the damage caused."
"Today we fulfilled that obligation," he added.
EU leaders will elaborate in more detail next week on the use of Russian Central Bank assets to provide loans and aid to Ukraine over the next two years.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused the European Commission (EC) of "systematically raping European law" and that "the rule of law in the European Union is coming to an end and that European leaders are putting themselves above the rules."
"The European Commission is systematically violating European law. It is doing this in order to continue the war in Ukraine, a war that is clearly unwinnable," he wrote on social media, adding that Hungary would "do everything in its power to establish lawful order."
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico stated in a letter to Košta that he would refuse to support any move "that would include covering Ukraine's military costs for the coming years."
"The use of frozen Russian assets could directly threaten the peacekeeping efforts of the United States of America (US), which is directly counting on the use of these resources for the reconstruction of Ukraine," he added.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot described the move as "an important decision that will undoubtedly influence the course of the war and accelerate peace."
"Since Europeans do not want to allow anyone else to decide for them, we have decided to lock up these amounts (assets) for as long as necessary," Barrot said, according to French media.
The EU decision also prevents any use of the property without European approval.
Most of the 210 billion euros in frozen assets are held by the Belgian financial institution Euroclear, which, however, opposes the plan for so-called reparations loans, arguing that it "entails consequential economic, financial and legal risks."
The Russian Central Bank announced today that it had filed a lawsuit in Moscow against the Belgian company, and in a separate statement said that European plans to help Ukraine are "illegal and contrary to international law."
Kalas: EU decides to freeze all Russian assets indefinitely
European Union foreign policy chief Kaia Kalas announced today that the European Union (EU) has decided to freeze all Russian assets indefinitely.
"The EU has just decided to freeze Russian assets indefinitely. This ensures that up to €210 billion of Russian assets remain on EU soil unless Russia fully pays Ukraine reparations for the damage it has caused," she wrote on X.
Kalas added that the Union continues to increase pressure on Moscow "until it takes the negotiations (on ending the war in Ukraine) seriously."
"Next week's European Council will be crucial for securing Ukraine's financial needs in the coming years," the announcement concludes.
Reuters reports that the EU reached an agreement today to indefinitely freeze the assets of the Russian central bank located in Europe, removing a major obstacle to using the money to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia.
The EU wants to provide Ukraine with funding to continue its fight, seeing the Russian invasion as a threat to its own security. To achieve this, EU member states are seeking to put into operation some of the Russian state assets they immobilized after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to Reuters.
The first major step, agreed by EU member state governments today, is to freeze 210 billion euros ($246 billion) of Russian state assets for as long as necessary, instead of voting every six months on whether to extend the asset freeze.
This removes the risk that Hungary and Slovakia, which have better relations with Moscow than other EU states, will at some point refuse to extend the freeze, which would force the EU to return the money to Russia.
Planned loan to Ukraine
The indefinite asset freeze is intended to help persuade Belgium to support an EU plan to use frozen Russian money to provide loans to Ukraine of up to 165 billion euros to cover its military and civilian budget needs in 2026 and 2027.
Ukraine would repay the loan only when Russia pays war damages to Kiev, which would effectively make the loan a grant that pre-empts future Russian reparations payments, Reuters writes.
EU leaders – the European Council – are due to meet on December 18 to finalise the details of the reparations loan and resolve remaining issues, including guarantees from all EU governments to Belgium that it will not be left alone to bear the costs if Moscow's eventual lawsuit is successful.
Before that, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Berlin on Monday, where he will hold talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and will be joined later by other European, EU and NATO leaders, the German government said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko, writing on the English-language social network X, praised the decision as a "turning point towards justice and accountability."
"This decision strengthens the foundations of the reparations loan mechanism and brings us closer to a future in which Russia pays for its crimes and the destruction it has caused," she wrote.
Germany sees no alternative to a loan based on reparations and would provide 50 billion euros in guarantees, European diplomatic sources said.
Danish Finance Minister Stefani Lose, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told reporters that there were still "certain concerns" to be considered, but that she "hoped that we would be able to pave the way for a decision at the European Council next week."
European Commissioner for the Economy Valdis Dombrovskis said that firm guarantees for Belgium are being prepared.
Russian Central Bank says it will sue Euroclear
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Facebook that he believed the EU's move to indefinitely freeze Russian assets through a qualified majority vote - which requires the support of 15 of the 27 member states representing 65 percent of the EU's population - would cause irreparable damage to the union, Reuters reported.
Hungary will do everything it can to "restore the legal situation," Orban said.
The Russian central bank said that the EU's plans to use its assets were illegal and reserved the right to use all available means to protect its interests, a statement Dombrovskis rejected.
The bank also said it would sue Brussels-based central securities depository Euroclear – which holds 185 billion euros of total assets frozen in Europe – in a Moscow court for what it said were harmful practices affecting its ability to dispose of its funds and securities.
Euroclear has been the subject of Russian lawsuits in Moscow courts since 2022, when the EU froze its assets.
EU accession negotiations
The Financial Times reported that Ukraine could join the EU on January 1, 2027, under proposals being discussed in negotiations to end the war, brokered by the United States.
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A European diplomat familiar with the plan said that Ukrainian accession by 2027 would be "extremely difficult" to achieve and that it was not clear whether EU leadership supported such a scenario.
Several other European officials and diplomats have called the target date "absolutely impossible."
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