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President Trump’s threat to abandon Ukraine added urgency to plans to fund security or reconstruction with the roughly $300 billion owned by Russia’s central bank.
Saltivka, a residential area of Kharkiv, in northern Ukraine. Before the war, Saltivka was a densely populated neighborhood, home to some 400,000 residents. Credit… Mauricio Lima for The New York Times By Patricia Cohen
Patricia Cohen has covered the efforts to financially isolate Russia since the start of the war on Ukraine. She reported from London.
March 4, 2025
President Trump’s rancorous threat to abandon Ukraine is stoking support for a long-debated proposal to use billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to buy weapons for Ukraine and finance its reconstruction.
The money — roughly $300 billion owned by Russia’s central bank — was frozen by the United States, the European Union, Britain and others after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The aim was to punish President Vladimir V. Putin for his unprovoked attack and to cut off funds he could use to wage war.
As the war grinds on into its fourth year, a growing number of officials in Europe and elsewhere have been calling for the money to be released to directly compensate Ukraine.
The idea has picked up momentum recently, as President Trump vowed to quickly broker a deal to end the war while threatening to slash U.S. aid to Ukraine.
“Enough talking, it’s time to act!” Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, posted on X last month. “Let’s finance our aid for Ukraine from the Russian frozen assets.”
Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have joined the call. “The time is ripe now to take the next step,” Margus Tsahkna, the foreign minister of Estonia, said last month, after submitting a discussion paper on the subject to the European Union.
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