Ukraine may receive billions of dollars of frozen Russian assets from the EU - the first money will be received this year if certain conditions are met.
This was stated by Deputy Minister of Justice Iryna Mudra, Forbes reports.
According to her, Ukraine may receive $15-18 billion over four years, including about $4 billion this year.
However, this requires several stages:
first - to determine which institutions have these funds, and that's already been done;
second - the European Commission has already made a decision: all accrued interest should be placed in one institution;
third - the introduction of legislation in the EU that allows the transfer of these funds to Ukraine.
"We have already held talks with representatives of Belgium, which currently holds the presidency of the EU Council. There is cautious optimism that the EU Council will make a decision by the end of June 2024. If this happens, Ukraine will receive interest on the assets that were repaid in 2024," she said.
Iryna Mudra noted that negotiations are currently underway to transfer of already accrued interest for 2022-2023. All the money is in Belgium, and in 2022 a 25% tax was paid on it (approximately €1.7 billion). The Belgian government is currently financially supporting Ukrainian refugees with these funds.
At the same time, the funds for 2023 have not yet been taxed, but negotiations are underway to make the tax rate 100%, after which they will be transferred to Ukraine. We are talking about an amount of €4.4 billion. The decision to transfer these funds may be made by the Belgian government.
"Our principled position is that this should be additional funding, not part of the assistance already agreed with the European Union. Most likely, international partners will not agree to use these funds for the defense sector. They will be used to cover the budget deficit, social payments, reconstruction projects, etc.", Iryna Mudra emphasized.
Earlier we wrote that US Senate supported a package bill on international aid to Ukraine for more than $60 billion.