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Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever has insisted that his European partners should share the risk of using billions of dollars of frozen Russian assets held in his country to help keep them. ukraineThe economy and war effort would continue in the years to come.
Ukraine’s budget and military needs for 2026 and 2027 are estimated at around $153 billion, and the EU’s executive branch is developing a plan to use Russia’s frozen assets as collateral to raise funds.
The largest tranche of those assets, worth approximately $225 billion, is held belgiumAnd the Belgian government is wary of using funds without concrete guarantees from other EU countries.
“If we want to give them ukraine“We have to do this together,” De Wever told reporters as he arrived in Brussels for a summit with his EU counterparts. “If not, Russian retaliation can only cause harm.” belgiumIt’s not very fair.”
He warned, “We are a small country, and retaliation could be very tough. They could seize all kinds of money from Western banks in Russia, seize European-owned companies in Russia.”
European Commission Has described the scheme as a “compensation loan”.
In essence, EU countries will guarantee Ukraine’s loan of approximately $165 billion of European money, which will not be derived from the assets themselves. Kiev will return the funds to the EU only if Russia pays significant war reparations for the massive destruction caused to Ukraine.
If Moscow refuses, its assets will remain frozen.
Russia has warned against this step.
Earlier this month, a Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Told journalists that the EU’s intentions “are similar to a plan to illegally seize Russian property – in Russian, we call it theft.”
However, the Commission Chairman Ursula von der Leyen Emphasizing that “we are not seizing assets, but we are taking cash balances for loans to Ukraine.” “If Russia pays compensation, Ukraine will have to repay this debt,” he said.
Von der Leyen said, “Russia is the culprit. It has caused harm and must be held accountable.” He said he thought his team had found “a good legal way to do this” and got reluctant member states on board.
De Wever insisted Thursday on looking at what that means.
“I haven’t even seen the legal basis for the decision yet,” he said. “This seems to me to be the first step if you want to take an important decision. This has never been done. Even during World War II we did not do this, so this is not a detail.”