EU To Use Frozen Assets For Wartorn Ukraine
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BRUSSELS/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – European Union leaders have agreed to use proceeds from billions in frozen Russian assets to help wartorn Ukraine, despite Hungarian warnings Kyiv “will never win” against Russia.
Yet Russian oligarchs and others near Russia’s President Vladimir Putin with frozen assets faced a week of possible more nightmares after the accord.
The EU’s executive European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the first 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion) from the scheme could be disbursed as soon as July 1.
The Commission has proposed transferring 90 percent of profits from the frozen Russian assets to an EU-run fund to finance arms for Ukraine.
Another 10 percent would go to budget aid for Ukraine, such as recovery, reconstruction, and modernization efforts. Moscow called the deal “theft” and warned of grave consequences for banks involved in the scheme.
The agreement came over the weekend after Hungary, which maintains close ties with the Kremlin, withdrew its opposition after it received assurances its share in assistance for Ukraine won’t be used for weapon deliveries, Worthy News learned.
Ukraine’s government expects to receive 4.5 billion euros ($5 billion) in March and another 1.5 billion euros (nearly $1.7 billion) in April.
UKRAINE FACILITY
That money comes from the ‘Ukraine Facility’ set up by the EU to provide Ukraine with up to 50 billion euros ($54 billion) “in stable and predictable financial support” over the 2024-2027 period.
A Belgian proposal to issue defense bonds to maximize the planned use of the nearly $3.3 billion expected profits generated by the frozen Russian assets was opposed by fiscal-conscious EU states such as Germany, Europe’s largest economy, and France, officials said.
Talks on increasing support for Ukraine highlighted frustration within the EU about the U.S. Congress still upholding about $60 billion in aid for Ukraine amid Republican concerns.
However, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the war in Ukraine would have “never broken out” if Donald J. Trump was re-elected as president of the United States in 2020.
The minister, who hopes Trump will return to the White House, stressed that Ukraine “can never” win the battle “with the military superpower Russia.”
In comments monitored by Worthy News, the minister said the focus should be on peace talks in part because Ukraine hosts 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, many of whom were drafted into Ukrainian.
He recalled that several of them had been killed and injured on the battlefields of Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two.
NUCLEAR POWER
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in separate remarks that his country also needs Russia to expand the country’s only nuclear power plant, for which Moscow provided a 10 billion euro ($10.9 billion) loan.
With much at stake, Orbán was among the first European leaders to “congratulate” Russian President Vladimir Putin on his declared election victory with nearly 88 percent of the vote.
Besides Ukraine, the EU also discussed expanding the European Union towards the Balkans by agreeing on membership talks with Bosnia.
However, Brussels made clear the ethnically divided Balkan country, which is still recovering from a war in the 1990s, would have to undertake more reforms before talks could begin.
“The European Council has just decided to open accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Charles Michel, the president of the council, posted on social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Congratulations!” he added. “Your place is in our European family.”
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