EU states revive plan to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine

Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain have backed a renewed plan to use frozen Russian assets to help address Ukraine’s latest funding crisis, according to the Financial Times. The move revives a proposal that had struggled to secure sufficient political and legal support among European governments.

The initiative comes as Kyiv faces another funding shortfall and European states remain central to sustaining Ukraine’s finances. The latest development is the reported support from three additional countries, rather than a completed agreement or an immediate transfer of funds.

The proposal directly connects the European governments supporting it with Ukraine’s budgetary needs and the Russian assets immobilised under sanctions. Its practical effect would depend on the mechanism used to mobilise those assets, including how proceeds or other value could be made available without triggering disputes over ownership and sovereign immunity.

The reporting does not establish that EU governments have resolved the legal questions or reached consensus across the bloc. Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain’s backing strengthens the proposal, but the headline indicates that states are reviving a plan, not that the assets have already been appropriated or that financing has been released.

The next developments to watch are the positions of other EU member states and any formal proposal from European institutions. The decisive details will be the number of governments supporting the mechanism, the legal basis selected and the amount of funding that could be made available to Kyiv. The timing of any agreement, and whether the plan survives objections from states concerned about legal or financial retaliation, remain open.