Overview
- The foreign ministers of Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain sent a letter dated Aug. 27 asking the European Commission and Ireland’s foreign minister to put the topic on the Sept. 1–2 informal ministers’ agenda and to restart technical work.
- The letter requests that Commission technical experts explore legal and operational frameworks that could put immobilised Russian assets to work for Ukraine without endorsing outright confiscation and while spreading risk across member states.
- About €210 billion of Russian central‑bank assets have been immobilised since February 2022, most held at Euroclear in Belgium, and a December 2025 EU proposal to use them was blocked after Belgium demanded broad guarantees against legal and financial fallout.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned on Aug. 27 that Moscow will pursue “the entire arsenal of legal tools” if the EU tries to use the assets, raising the prospect of lawsuits and potential market or investor consequences.
- The Commission has not yet replied to the letter, and ministers’ discussions in Wicklow could influence whether the EU finds a legal route to boost Ukraine’s funding or instead leans more on budget talks and other partners to close the reported €23 billion defence gap.