Ukraine will receive the first delivery of funds stemming from the revenue of frozen Russian assets in July, the European Commission said on May 21.
Ukraine's Western partners and other allies froze around $300 billion in Russian assets at the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. Roughly two-thirds are held in the Belgium-based financial services company Euroclear.
In March, the European Commission submitted a proposal on using 90% of the generated funds to purchase weapons for Ukraine and allocate the remaining 10% to the EU budget to support the country's defense industry.
After many weeks of debates, EU ambassadors reached a political agreement on the proposal on May 8.
The EU Council finalized the agreement earlier on May 21, which would provide Ukraine with between 2.5 billion and 3 billion euros ($2.7-3.26 billion) annually, with most of it allocated to Kyiv's military needs.
The European Commission then announced later in the day that the "resources will be available to support Ukraine starting from July 2024, with bi-annual payments."
The distribution will be reviewed on an annual basis.
"Speed remains of the essence and the Commission will continue making all efforts to allow the first payment to be made already in July," said European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.
While the U.S. proposed seizing Russian assets outright, the EU has been more hesitant, fearing legal and fiscal pitfalls of confiscation. Instead, Brussels proposed to use windfall profits generated by the frozen assets and funnel them to Kyiv.
Andrii Borovyk
