US Offers to Unfreeze Russian Assets to Resume Ukraine Peace Talks

The Financial Times revealed that the United States proposed to European countries lifting the freeze on some Russian sovereign assets in an attempt to revive talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, but the proposal was met with European rejection.

According to the newspaper, the American proposal suggests unfreezing part of the Russian sovereign assets - which were frozen after the outbreak of the Russian war on Ukraine - and transferring them to a entity supervised by Washington, in an effort to revive peace talks.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that this proposal was raised during discussions held in Miami last week between Donald Trump's peace negotiators and officials from Ukraine, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and NATO.

These individuals clarified that the United States suggested several possible ways to unfreeze these assets, including transferring them to a new private financial entity supervised by Washington.

A US official said that the use of frozen Russian assets had been discussed as part of a comprehensive peace agreement, noting that mechanisms for releasing these assets and their spending are still under consideration.

The US official added that many ideas have been put forward regarding how to utilize Moscow's frozen assets after the end of the war. Ukrainian officials participating in the peace talks mentioned that this issue had been discussed with the American side in previous meetings.

Western Rejection
According to the newspaper, European delegates rejected the plan presented by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

This plan raised concern among European capitals and Kyiv, leading to questions about the United States' intentions and its completely different approach to pressuring Moscow to end its invasion of Ukraine.

Western allies froze Russian state-owned assets worth approximately 260 billion euros in 2022, in response to Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine, noting that the majority of these assets are located within the European Union.

Ukraine received a loan of 45 billion euros from G7 countries, funded by the interest generated from Russian frozen assets in the EU; however, many European capitals oppose using the assets themselves, citing legal concerns.

Late last year, leaders of the European bloc pledged to use these assets to fund Ukraine's reconstruction if Russia refused to pay war reparations.

However, any decision to lift the freeze on these assets requires consensus among the EU member states (numbering 27), which is considered unlikely.

Previous Proposal
A similar proposal regarding frozen assets was included a year ago in the 28-point peace plan put forward by the Trump administration, but it gained no momentum. Kyiv and some European countries had demanded the use of these frozen assets to support Ukraine.

The US official stated that Washington asked Kyiv to submit a proposal clarifying how any funds - regardless of source - would be spent, and to work with the World Bank to implement reforms aimed at combating corruption and establishing accountability.

In a related context, Russian state media reported on Wednesday that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would do "everything in its power to recover stolen assets."

Peskov added that this includes "taking legal action, resorting to courts, and pursuing prosecutions."

Sources familiar with the matter indicated that European officials who attended the meeting expressed their refusal to relinquish any control over these assets or return any part of them to Moscow.

One of these individuals said: "They were clearly told that this will never happen."