A European Union plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s fight against Russia would have \u201cfar-reaching consequences\u201d for the EU, Moscow’s ambassador to Germany warned on Friday.<\/p>\n
His statement came as EU leaders seek more ways to keep Ukraine afloat as it faces increasing pressure on the battlefield.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny operation with sovereign Russian assets without Russia’s consent constitutes theft,\u201d Sergei Nechaev said in a statement sent to AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also clear that the theft of Russian state funds will have far-reaching consequences,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n
The EU on Wednesday laid out a plan to use frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine with 90 billion euros over the next two years, despite opposition from Belgium, where the bulk of the assets are held.<\/p>\n
But Nechaev said the \u201cunprecedented step\u201d could \u201cdestroy the business reputation of the European Union and plunge European governments into endless lawsuits.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn reality, it is a path to legal anarchy and the destruction of the foundations of the global financial system, which will primarily strike the European Union,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that this is understood in Brussels and Berlin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \u2018A constructive exchange,\u2019 says Merz<\/p>\n
European leaders are looking for fresh options as U.S. President Donald Trump looks to end the war on terms they see as unfavorable to Kyiv.<\/p>\n
They are seeking ways to fund a loan to Kyiv which, under the proposal, would be paid back by any eventual Russian reparations to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
But Belgium, home to international deposit organisation Euroclear \u2014 which holds most of the Russian assets \u2014 has so far rejected the proposal because of potential legal repercussions.<\/p>\n
Nechaev said the plan showed that Europe did not have the \u201cconsiderable resources\u201d required to keep supporting Ukraine.<\/p>\n
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Friday to discuss the proposal.<\/p>\n
In a statement after the meeting, Merz said it had been a \u201cvery constructive exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBelgium’s particular concern about the question of utilizing frozen Russian assets is undeniable and must be addressed in any conceivable solution in such a way that all European states bear the same risk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The leaders agreed \u201cto continue their discussions with the aim of finding a common solution\u201d by their next summit on Dec. 18 and 19, said Merz’s spokesman Stefan Kornelius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A European Union plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s fight against Russia would have \u201cfar-reaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[1789,2000,299,5187,1699],"class_list":{"0":"post-615673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-european-union"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115672016899039580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}