BRUSSELS, 26 July. /TASS/. The European Union has expropriated and transferred to the European Commission (EC) a tranche of 1.5 billion euros for Ukraine using proceeds from reinvestment of frozen Russian assets, the European Commission said. The next tranche is expected in March 2025.
"Today, we are transferring €1.5 billion of the proceeds from the immobilised Russian assets to the defence and reconstruction of Ukraine." wrote EC President Ursula von der Leyen on her page on the social network X.
At the same time, the EC has published a document explaining how the transfer of funds will take place. According to the document, the funds will not go directly to Kiev. Instead, they will go to the EC's European Peace Facility, which is supposed to compensate EU countries for weapons.
"The money will now be channelled through the European Peace Facility and the Ukraine Facility to support Ukraine's military capabilities and also to support the reconstruction of the country," said the European Commission. "90 % of the financial contribution from the exceptional revenue will go to the European Peace Facility (EPF) and 10 % to the Ukraine Facility to support Ukraine's military needs and reconstruction respectively," says the EC explanation.
The European Peace Facility is used to reimburse EU countries for arms deliveries to Kiev (averaging a payment of 40 % of the cost of the weapons and ammunition delivered), while the Ukrainian Facility is used to reimburse, for example, the delivery of electric generators. Both funds are supervised by the EC.
The European Commission also said that so far only the proceeds from the assets blocked at Euroclear Belgium have been collected. In reality, therefore, funds have only been transferred from Euroclear accounts to the EC.
The European Commission's moves to expropriate state assets are unprecedented. They are based on a regulation adopted by the EC in January 2024, which states that income from the reinvestment of frozen Russian assets allegedly does not belong to Russia. Most experts in Russia and around the world consider this justification to be legally flawed. It is similar to claiming that dividends from a bank deposit are not the property of the owner of that deposit.
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