The European Union (EU) has prepared a draft law giving Ukraine the opportunity to transfer the proceeds from Russian assets frozen in the West as early as July.
This was reported by the Bloomberg agency on Monday, citing the document, APA reported with reference to TASS.
Thus, the EU plans to impose a tax on profits from blocked funds and use about 3 billion euros a year to finance arms supplies to Ukraine and “revive the country’s defence industry”.
According to the draft law, as of 15 February, part of the revenues will be transferred twice a year to the European Peace Fund and the Ukraine Support Fund, from which military aid to Kiev is paid. The other part of the funds will be kept in centralised warehouses to cover the costs of maintaining the assets and to hedge against possible risks, including retaliatory measures by Russia.
At the same time, as the agency notes, the draft document must be approved by all EU members.
On 11 March, the Financial Times reported that the community could transfer €2-3 billion to Ukraine as early as July from the proceeds of the reinvestment of Russia’s frozen assets managed by the international custodian Euroclear. On 1 February, participants at the EU summit approved the European Commission’s proposal to use the proceeds from the blocked funds to partially finance a €50 billion budget aid programme for Kiev until 2027.