The European Union has provided Ukraine with €9 billion ($10.5 billion) in loans this year, financed by profits generated from frozen Russian central bank assets, according to data released by the European Commission on Friday.
The funds are part of a wider Western effort to channel revenues from roughly $300 billion in Russian reserves immobilized since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. About €200 billion of those assets are held by Euroclear, a Brussels-based clearinghouse, where they have accrued billions in interest.
The EU pledged a total of €21 billion in loans, while the G7 group of nations last year backed a plan to raise $50 billion for Kyiv, to be repaid with the income from Russia’s frozen reserves. The Commission said its latest disbursement of €1 billion marks the seventh tranche this year.
Russia has denounced the scheme as unlawful and warned it undermines trust in the global financial system. Moscow argues that both freezing and potentially seizing the assets violate international law, with President Vladimir Putin cautioning that the move could accelerate a global shift toward regional payment systems outside Western control.
“The damage is done,” Maksim Oreshkin, deputy head of Putin’s administration, said in June. “This whole situation is a major blow to the Western financial system and Western countries.”
While some Western governments have urged transferring the frozen assets outright to Ukraine, others remain wary of the legal risks. Economists and institutions including the IMF and Euroclear have cautioned that tapping the funds without clear legal grounds could erode confidence in Western financial institutions.
“Central banks must be able to trust that their reserves abroad are safe,” Nicolas Veron, a French economist at the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank, told Die Welt. “This is a central element of the global monetary order.”
