Use frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine, says EU's top diplomat

Billions of Russian state funds frozen in the European Union should be used to aid Ukraine, the EU's top diplomat has said.

- Jennifer Rankin

Kaja Kallas, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, told the Guardian and four other European newspapers that Ukraine had a legitimate claim for compensation and that Russian assets held in the EU were "a tool to pressure Russia".

The EU has already begun skimming the profits off Russian assets held in the bloc for Ukraine, but has balked at seizing the entire sum (€210bn) because of doubts about the legality of such a move. The EU holds more than two-thirds of Russia's $300bn sovereign assets frozen by western allies after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kallas, a lawyer who was Estonia's prime minister until July, predicted that despite "sensitivities...we will get there one day", in an intervention that raises pressure on European governments to reconsider the issue.

She suggested the Russian funds would help pay the bill for "all the damage that Russia has caused to Ukraine".

"Better to have a small bird in your hand than a big bird on the roof," she said. "So we have the small bird in our hand [the frozen assets] and this is the tool to also pressure Russia."

Her proposal comes amid growing questions over how to fund Ukraine in the medium term and pay its colossal reconstruction bill. Donald Trump, who has derided US aid to Kyiv, will also return to the White House next year.

In her first sit-down interview with print media since starting her new role, Kallas said Europe needed to step up aid to Ukraine if the US withdrew funding.