Published on, Aug. 31 -- August 31, 2025 2:29 PM

The European Union is preparing to study ways of using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine's defence and reconstruction, but leaders stressed that confiscating them now remains politically unrealistic.

More than €210 billion worth of Russian assets remain frozen under sanctions imposed after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, with most of the funds currently held by Euroclear, a key securities depository in Belgium.

Some EU members, including Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland, have demanded immediate seizure of these assets to cover Ukraine's massive funding gap, which is expected to reach tens of billions of euros next year.

However, France, Germany, and Belgium opposed the move, ra...