Europe will have to revisit issue of using Russian assets, EU commissioner says

Prefer on Google by Chris Powers Valdis Dombrovskis, economy commissioner for the European Union, speaks during a news conference following a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Nov. 12, 2025. (Simon Wohlfahrt / Bloomberg via Getty Images) The European Union will have to return to the issue of using frozen Russian assets if Moscow fails to pay reparations to Ukraine, Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s economy commissioner, told the Kyiv Independent on April 21. In 2025 EU leaders discussed a plan to directly provide 140 billion euros ($164 billion) of the Russian frozen assets to Ukraine as part of a "reparations loan." However, the plan fell apart due to objections from Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever , who feared his country would be particularly exposed if the legal basis for the move was challenged, given that the assets are held in Belgium. Instead, in December top EU officials agreed to provide Ukraine with the 90 billion euro ($105 billion) Ukraine Support Loan, secured with EU borrowings on capital markets, as opposed to Russian assets. However, the loan has been blocked by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Orban lost the April 12 parliamentary election, which is expected to unblock the loan. Dombrovskis reminded that the EU’s Ukraine Support Loan is structured so that Ukraine only repays if Russia pays Ukraine reparations. “(This), of course, invites a question: what happens if Russia does not pay reparations?” he said. Therefore, “we will have to come back to this question,” the commissioner noted, adding that the EU regulation on the Ukraine Support Loan contains the right to use cash derived from the frozen Russian assets to pay back the loan. Since December, the frozen assets have not featured again as a discussion item for EU leaders but the bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas has mentioned their use as a possibility. Sources in the European Parliament also told Kyiv Independent that some representatives intend to table a discussion on frozen assets, so that the parliament would have a formal position of its own on the topic. When it comes to repaying the Ukraine Support Loan, on one aspect Dombrovskis was unequivocal: “Of course, we are not putting this obligation on Ukraine.” Russia’s central bank assets held worldwide were frozen in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Of the roughly €260 billion ($305 billion) held globally, about €185 billion ($218 billion) is held in the Belgium-based clearing house, Euroclear.