EU member vows to oppose seizure of Russian assets

Slovakia will not support an EU initiative to use frozen Russian assets to cover Ukraine’s military expenses, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Saturday. Bratislava has refused to send military aid to Kiev, instead calling for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Western nations have frozen around $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets since 2022 and used interest from the funds last year to raise $50 billion in loans for Ukraine. The EU is now seeking to raise €140 billion ($160 billion) more using Russian assets as collateral. The scheme is based on the presumption that Moscow would eventually pay reparations to Kiev as part of a peace settlement.

EU leaders failed to reach an agreement on the confiscation during a summit in October, effectively postponing a final decision until a European Council meeting in December.

In an interview with the Saturday Dialogues show, Fico questioned whether Brussels is seeking to end the hostilities or continue fueling the conflict, suggesting that providing an additional $160 billion to Kiev could prolong the fighting for another two years.

“I said this very clearly: the Slovak Republic, as long as I am prime minister, will not participate in any legal or financial mechanisms whose goal would be the confiscation of frozen assets and which are intended to end up as military expenditures in Ukraine,” Fico said.

He warned that tapping the frozen funds could trigger billion-euro arbitrations, causing enormous difficulties for EU member states. He also pointed to Belgium, whose government has cautioned that the move could provoke severe retaliatory measures from Moscow.

Most of the frozen assets are held at the Euroclear clearinghouse in Belgium. The country has repeatedly said that the EU proposal undermines trust in European financial institutions.

Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken warned in October that retaliation from Russia could cost the EU more than $170 billion. “Of course, this money will not rebuild Ukraine but will continue the war,” he added.

Moscow has warned that using its frozen assets would amount to theft. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said channeling the funds to Ukraine would “boomerang” and that anyone attempting to seize Russian assets would face legal prosecution.