US and EU to transfer $50 billion in frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

Ukraine is to receive $50 billion (€47.4 billion) of frozen Russian assets held by the US and EU in the “coming weeks”, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced at a NATO briefing in Brussels on Wednesday.

Stressing NATO efforts to provide Ukraine with “the resources it needs to sustain its economy and to sustain its defence”, Blinken said that the funds, which were frozen by Western countries in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022, would “be going out the door in the coming weeks, both from the United States and Europe” and would “carry Ukraine for some time into next year”.

Blinken also said that the Biden administration aimed to give Ukraine the “strongest possible hand to use next year and beyond” in the war by making sure “every cent” of the $61 billion (€58 billion) aid package approved by the US Senate in April reached Kyiv before Republican president-elect Donald Trump takes office on 20 January.

“If Ukraine determines that it needs to continue the fight, we want to make sure it has what it needs to continue that fight — the money, the munitions, the mobilised forces. If it chooses to engage in a negotiation — and that assumes of course that Putin and Russia have any intent of doing that — then, again, we want to make sure it’s from a position of strength”, Blinken said.

On Monday, the Biden administration announced the delivery of a military aid package to Kyiv worth €689 million, including anti-air missiles, counter-drone systems and anti-personnel landmines as part of its “surge” of support to Ukraine during President Joe Biden’s final months in office.

While Blinken reiterated on Wednesday that it was down to “Ukraine and its democratically elected leadership” to make any decisions about its future, Trump’s advisors have reportedly discussed pressuring Kyiv to accept unfavourable peace terms that would see the war frozen along the current front lines, leaving some 20% of Ukrainian territory under Russian control, and forcing Ukraine to “temporarily suspend” its efforts to join NATO.