Europe rejected the Trump administration's proposal on Russian assets
The Trump administration has proposed lifting restrictions on a portion of Russia's frozen state assets to restart stalled peace talks on Ukraine. According to Financial Times sources, European countries did not support this initiative.
Europe has rejected a proposal from the Trump administration regarding Russian assets. According to DW, citing the Financial Times, this plan was put forward by the US president's special envoy, Steven Witkoff, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at a recent meeting in Miami with representatives of Ukraine and European states.
The proposal envisaged transferring a portion of Russia's frozen assets to a special financial entity controlled by Washington.
According to the newspaper's interlocutors, European representatives opposed both handing over control of the assets to the US and returning a portion of the frozen funds to Russia.
The initiative by Witkoff and Kushner raised concerns among Ukrainian officials and European diplomats regarding Washington's approach to exerting pressure on Russia.
According to FT, in February 2022, Western countries froze nearly 260 billion euros of Russian state assets. The vast majority of them are held in the European Union.
The EU has not yet handed over the assets themselves to Ukraine. The revenues generated from them are being used to provide financial assistance to Kyiv.
In particular, Ukraine received a 45 billion euro loan from the "Group of Seven" countries, secured by interest income from the frozen assets.
The publication writes that EU leaders pledged to use these assets to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine if Russia fails to pay reparations after the war ends.
FT sources emphasized that unfreezing Russian assets requires the unanimous consent of all EU member states. This makes implementing the proposal by the US representatives difficult.