France’s President Emmanuel Macron highlighted the impossibility of seizing the frozen Russian assets during a meeting with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, in Washington. Macron stated, “You can take dividends from frozen assets, but you can’t take the assets themselves. That’s against international law and we will stick to it.”
According to Macron, the issue of frozen Russian assets should be part of the peace talks over Ukraine. It is reported that approximately 260 billion euros of the assets affected by the sanctions are being held in the G7 countries, the EU and Australia. The majority of this amount, around 210 billion euros, is held in the EU, including cash and state bonds in euros, US dollars and other currencies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the freezing of Russian assets by the West as theft. He emphasized that this would not go unpunished.
Meanwhile, the international custodian Euroclear plans to transfer around two billion euros in earnings from the frozen Russian assets to European funds in support of Ukraine in March 2025. This will be the second financial transfer in this format for Kiev, following the first transfer of around 1.55 billion euros in July 2024.
The EU’s Foreign Affairs Chief, Kaja Kallas, acknowledged that the European Union’s member states are not in agreement over the possible seizure of the frozen Russian assets. Kallas stated, “We need a unified position and we don’t have that now.