UPDATED: Ukraine: EU Proposal for using frozen Russian assets ‘fully legal and fair’

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged European Union leaders on Thursday to agree as soon as possible on a plan to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.

Zelenskyy, who is visiting Brussels, said on X that the proposed mechanism for using frozen Russian assets was entirely legal and fair. He said Ukraine would use a significant part of the assets to buy weapons from its European allies.

Belgium has been the most vocal sceptic of the plan, as it fears the move could open up the country to costly legal challenges from Russia.

Prime minister Bart De Wever has insisted that to move ahead Belgium needs firm guarantees from all other EU states that they will share the liability if Moscow comes calling. He also wants other countries in the bloc to promise to start tapping Russian assets frozen in their territories.

“Then we could go forward,” he said at the start of the EU summit. “If not, I will do everything in my power at the European level, also at the national level, politically and legally, to stop this decision.”

Despite the Belgian hang-ups, EU leaders are expected to give the go-ahead at the summit for the European Commission to draw up a formal legal proposal for the loan.

EU officials say they hope to have a detailed proposal ready next month and be able to finalise the loan by the end of the year. But there looks set to still be wrangling over the small print, with lawyers poised to go through it with a fine-tooth comb.

One key sticking point could be the conditions for how the funds can eventually be spent by Kyiv. France is insisting that the bulk of the funds goes to buying weapons from in Europe, as it seeks to bolster the EU’s defence industry.

The commission has backed that argument for now but other member states insist the focus should be on allowing Kyiv to get what it needs to fight Moscow, wherever it comes from.

Any action by the EU to confiscate Russian assets in Euroclear accounts will result in a “painful response” from Russia, the foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

“The EU has no legal means to seize Russian assets, so their confiscation would be ‘theft,’” Zakharova said.

Under the plan, the EU would use cash balances from frozen Russian central bank securities to give Kyiv support that would cover much of its funding needs for 2026 and 2027.

De Wever, whose country is home to chief asset holder Euroclear, said he did not see the legal basis for such a decision yet, adding that immobilised assets had not even been touched in the second world war.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday: “I share the Belgian prime minister’s concerns but am confident we will take a step forward.”

Finland’s prime minister Petteri Orpo said: “We have a solution on the table which is legally sustainable and takes Belgium’s concerns into account.”

Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said: “I won’t declare victory on this until we’re done but I see a very broad support for using frozen Russian assets.”

Finland to buy US weapons for Ukraine for £86mn

Finland will buy US weapons for Ukraine for 100 million euros (£86mn), Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat (HS) reported on Thursday, citing the Nordic country’s prime minister Petteri Orpo.