Russia Sues EU over Use of Frozen Assets to Fund Ukraine

The Russian Central Bank has filed a lawsuit against Brussels in the General Court of the European Union, challenging rules that allow proceeds from frozen Russian state assets to be used to repay loans to Ukraine.

Moscow claims the EU is illegally altering the legal status of sovereign assets and using them as an instrument of financial support for a third country.

The EU regulation in question, adopted in February 2026, envisages that Ukraine will repay the loans only after receiving war reparations from Russia for the 2022 invasion. Brussels reserves the right to use the frozen assets to service Ukrainian debt in the interim.

According to the Russian central bank, around $300bn of Russian state reserves remain blocked in the West, most of them held in Europe at the Belgian Euroclear depository. Moscow had also challenged the decision to extend the asset freeze indefinitely in March.

(reuters, mja)