Democracy Dies in Darkness

E.U. sets precedent with plan to use profits from frozen Russian assets

Since the earliest weeks of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Western allies have debated how to make the Kremlin pay without exposing themselves to legal challenges.

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Updated May 21, 2024 at 11:43 a.m. EDT|Published May 21, 2024 at 8:23 a.m. EDT
The council room in the European Council in Brussels on Tuesday. (Olivier Matthys/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
3 min

BRUSSELS — Since the earliest weeks of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Western allies have debated how to make the Kremlin pay. On Tuesday, the European Union made a precedent-setting move, formally agreeing to use windfall profits from frozen Russian assets to buy arms for Kyiv.

That would amount to about $3 billion in the first year. In the context of the roughly $300 billion in frozen Russian assets — or the money Ukraine says it needs — it’s a tiny amount. But it represents an innovative first step as allies try to figure out how they might use frozen assets without inviting legal challenges or undermining trust in their financial systems.