At a European Commission press conference, Oeufari stated, “No one intends to undermine Russia’s legitimate claims to these assets, we will not do that. What we will do is still under discussion.”

In September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed granting Ukraine a new loan using frozen Russian assets. She noted that Ukraine would only repay the loan if Russia paid “compensation,” despite a lack of consensus within the EU on this loan.

Yesterday, leaders of the 27 EU countries discussed a European Commission proposal to grant a €140 billion loan to Kyiv based on the cash balances of frozen Russian assets, most of which are currently held in “Euroclear.”

The EU, Canada, the United States, and Japan have frozen nearly $300 billion of Russian assets following the launch of the special military operation. About $5-6 billion of these funds are held in the United States, with most in Europe, including on the international “Euroclear” platform in Belgium, where $210 billion is held.