{"id":630310,"date":"2025-12-13T14:53:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T14:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/630310\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T14:53:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T14:53:26","slug":"eu-agrees-to-indefinite-freeze-of-russian-assets-as-zelensky-prepares-for-security-talks-in-berlin-novaya-gazeta-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/630310\/","title":{"rendered":"EU agrees to indefinite freeze of Russian assets as Zelensky prepares for security talks in Berlin \u2014 Novaya Gazeta Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Union has agreed to indefinitely freeze \u20ac210 billion of Russian Central Bank assets held in Europe, Reuters reported<\/a> on Friday. The move is designed to strengthen support for Ukraine. <\/p>\n

Previously, decisions to extend the freeze were made every six months, but this left assets vulnerable to governments including Hungary and Slovakia who could veto the use of the funds in Ukraine\u2019s interest or require their return to Russia.<\/p>\n

The freeze is also intended to facilitate EU plans to provide Ukraine with a loan of up to \u20ac165 billion to cover military and civilian budget needs in 2026 and 2027. According to Ukrainian officials, Ukraine would only have to repay the loan after Russia compensates Kyiv for war-related damages.<\/p>\n

While Belgium, Italy, Bulgaria and Malta voted in favour of the indefinite freeze, they have expressed reservations about transferring funds to Ukraine. A final decision will be made at an EU summit being held at the end of next week.<\/p>\n

The Central Bank of Russia has also announced<\/a> plans to file a lawsuit against Belgian securities depository Euroclear, which holds about \u20ac190 billion of frozen Russian assets. The Russian regulator described any mechanisms for \u201cdirect or indirect use\u201d of its assets as \u201cillegal, contrary to international law, and violating the principles of sovereign immunity of assets.\u201d<\/p>\n

This comes in light of persistent diplomatic efforts to secure Western security guarantees for Ukraine. US representative Steve Witkoff is scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in Berlin this weekend according<\/a> to The Wall Street Journal. <\/p>\n

Zelensky said<\/a> that a defence working group would be convened in Germany to discuss security guarantees for Kyiv. These developments mark a two-pronged approach \u2014 reinforcing Ukraine\u2019s financial and diplomatic security while keeping international pressure on Russia over its ongoing aggression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union has agreed to indefinitely freeze \u20ac210 billion of Russian Central Bank assets held in Europe,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[43050,2000,299,5187,1699,43045,25781,43048,43049,43047,43043,43046,2046,43044,657,771],"class_list":{"0":"post-630310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-azar","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-gorbachev","14":"tag-investigation","15":"tag-kostyuchenko","16":"tag-latynina","17":"tag-martynov","18":"tag-novaya-gazeta-europe","19":"tag-politkovskaya","20":"tag-putin","21":"tag-stories","22":"tag-ukraine","23":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115712832578409293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630310","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=630310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}