ALBAWABA - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a new plan to take Russian assets that are frozen overseas and use them for Ukraine's defense and rebuilding. However, he did not give any details about how the plan would work.
Zelensky called the plan "complex but promising" in a statement on Friday. He said that Kyiv has gotten "positive signals" from its international partners.
He said, "This is not a full-scale confiscation but a different mechanism carried out through state guarantees," and he didn't want to say anything more.
Pay attention to frozen Russian assets
Zelensky said that at a recent meeting, his government talked a lot about using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild and defend itself after the war, which is still going on.
"We're getting closer to making a decision about these assets." He said, "It's only fair that Russia pays for the war it started and is still fighting in a terrorist way."
Billions of dollars in frozen reserves
The European Union and G7 countries have frozen almost half of Russia's foreign reserves, which are worth about €300 billion. Most of this money is held in the EU, mostly in accounts managed by Belgium's Euroclear, which is one of the world's largest clearing houses.
The European Commission says that between January and September 2025, the EU sent €14 billion to Ukraine from the interest it made on Russian assets that were frozen.
Moscow threatens to take action against
In response, Russia has taken retaliatory steps, putting the assets of investors from "unfriendly nations" into restricted "Type C" accounts that can only be accessed with government approval.
Moscow has called the Western freeze "outright theft" many times, saying it affects both public and private funds.
Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said that if the West tried to take frozen Russian assets, Russia would respond. He also said that Russia could block Western-owned funds from entering its borders as a form of retaliation.
Zelensky’s remarks signal Ukraine’s intent to accelerate legal and diplomatic efforts to unlock frozen Russian wealth — a move that could reshape the financial front of the ongoing conflict
