Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi said Ukraine is counting on a decision from its partners on the fate of Russia's frozen assets, speaking at an event held as part of the Yalta European Strategy forum, organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, according to a correspondent for LIGA.net.
Koretskyi said that, as far as he understood, Belgium's foreign minister had already indicated there was a potential chance to move the frozen assets into an investment fund and divide responsibility for them among European Union member states.
The prime minister said he understood the concerns of European partners about taking on responsibility for the sovereign assets of the aggressor state.
He said that, as with any decision, the only real measure of its effectiveness was the outcome, namely whether Ukraine survives or not, and that reaching the goal of withstanding the war, surviving and achieving peace required difficult choices along the way. He said Ukraine made such decisions every day and expected the same response from its partners, adding that there needed to be a clear focus on finding a solution for the frozen assets.
What the Yalta European Strategy forum is
The Yalta European Strategy, known as YES, is an annual conference founded by Ukrainian businessman Victor Pinchuk that brings together political, business and civic leaders to discuss Ukraine's future and its relations with Europe. It has become a regular platform for senior Ukrainian officials to address international audiences on the war and its economic fallout.
Belgium's veto and the EU's alternative loan
A previous plan to use Russia's frozen assets to fund Ukraine collapsed at the end of 2025 after Belgium vetoed it. Most of the frozen Russian funds are physically held in Belgium. Instead of the so-called reparations loan, the European Union approved a 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine covering 2026 and 2027, and pledged to keep working on developing a reparations loan based on Russian assets.
Pressure from other EU member states
A group of EU countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, prepared a letter to the European Commission in late August demanding the immediate resumption of technical and legal work on using 200 billion euros in frozen Russian sovereign assets.
Interest earned on the assets blocked at Euroclear, the Belgium-based securities depository, is already being used to help finance a loan of up to 50 billion euros agreed in 2024. Euroclear holds the bulk of the frozen Russian sovereign funds at the centre of the ongoing dispute among EU states.
Defence budget shortfall
On August 23, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine's Ministry of Defence faced an overall budget deficit of $27 billion, and that $8 to $10 billion was needed immediately to ensure the army had weapons in the first quarter of next year.
