EU Expects to Use Over $2.6Bln in Profits From Russian Assets for Aid to Ukraine - Commission

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union expects to use over 2.5 billion euros ($2.6 billion) of windfall profits from frozen Russian assets to provide military support to Ukraine this year, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.

"If we work at the pace we are working right now, the first payments of these windfall profits, that we estimate in the first year around about 2.5 to 2 billion euros a year, might be accessible and can be invested and support Ukraine in the military needs it has," von der Leyen told a press conference.

Following the start of Russia's special military operation, the US-led West slapped widespread sanctions on Moscow, including freezing Russian assets worth approximately 300 billion euros ($329 billion). The bulk of this sum, approximately 200 billion euros ($221 billion), is being held in the European Union, predominantly in accounts at Euroclear, a European central securities depository.

Moscow has maintained that such an attempt goes against international law. The Russian Foreign Ministry has dismissed the freezing of Russian assets as theft.

Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin dubbed the West’s asset seizure as “unseemly business,” and stressed that “stealing other people’s assets has never brought anyone good”.

Russian officials have warned of tit-for-tat actions as a response to transferring frozen assets to the Kiev regime, which may cost the West some $288 billion, according to Sputnik's calculations.