The EC plans to collect up to 15 billion euros for Kyiv from income from the assets of the Central Bank of Russia

The European Commission plans to raise up to 15 billion euros to support Ukraine from income received from the frozen assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the Financial Times newspaper reports, citing its sources. It is expected that the European Commission will propose a whole package of measures to use emergency revenues from the immobilized assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

Sources claim that first the European Commission will propose to direct income from Russia’s frozen assets to separate accounts, and then these funds will be transferred to the EU budget allocated for providing assistance to Kyiv.

According to the Financial Times, we are talking exclusively about income from frozen funds of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which, according to the European Commission, amount to about 3 billion euros annually. This amount is tentatively expected to reach €15 billion by 2027, but this could change depending on interest rates.

The publication also emphasizes that to implement this plan, EU countries will need unanimous support before the money is sent to Kyiv.

After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries froze almost half of Russian foreign exchange reserves amounting to about 300 billion euros, mainly held in the EU, including in the accounts of the Belgian Euroclear, one of the world’s largest settlement and clearing systems. At the end of October, the international depository Euroclear announced that in the nine months of 2023 it earned about three billion euros in interest on investments in sanctioned Russian assets.