EU Countries Call for Revival of Talks on Using Frozen Russian Assets to Support Ukraine

The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden called on the European Union to reopen discussions over the use of Russia’s frozen state assets to support Ukraine, as Kyiv faces a more than $26 billion defense funding shortfall and concerns grow over its finances.

On Thursday, the four countries made the appeal in a letter to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee ahead of next week’s informal meeting of foreign ministers in Ireland.

EU leaders failed in December to agree on a plan to leverage more than $244 billion in frozen Russian state assets to support a large loan to Ukraine.

Most of the assets are held at Euroclear – a Brussels-based central securities depository – and Belgium opposed the proposal without unlimited guarantees from other EU countries against potential legal and financial retaliation from…