Overview

• The EU has released €1.5 billion in interest earnings from frozen Russian central bank assets to support Ukraine’s defense and reconstruction efforts.
• Euroclear, under Belgian authorization, plans to redistribute €3 billion of frozen Russian investor funds to Western companies that lost assets in Russia.
• Iryna Mudra, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, warned that compensating investors before war victims undermines Europe’s resolve and breaches international law.
• Sanctions experts and Ukrainian officials argue that the investor payout sets a dangerous precedent that could weaken the EU’s leverage over Moscow.
• EU and G7 leaders are exploring further measures to channel both interest and eventual principal from frozen Russian assets into Ukraine’s funding packages despite legal and political hurdles.