EU to Use €1.4 Billion from Interest on Frozen Russian Assets to Help Ukraine

This handout photograph taken and released by Ukrainian State Emergency Service on August 5, 2026 shows rescuers working outside a warehouse premises damaged following massive Russian ballistic missile and drones strikes in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian State Emergency Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by Ukrainian State Emergency Service on August 5, 2026 shows rescuers working outside a warehouse premises damaged following massive Russian ballistic missile and drones strikes in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian State Emergency Service / AFP)
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EU to Use €1.4 Billion from Interest on Frozen Russian Assets to Help Ukraine

This handout photograph taken and released by Ukrainian State Emergency Service on August 5, 2026 shows rescuers working outside a warehouse premises damaged following massive Russian ballistic missile and drones strikes in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian State Emergency Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by Ukrainian State Emergency Service on August 5, 2026 shows rescuers working outside a warehouse premises damaged following massive Russian ballistic missile and drones strikes in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian State Emergency Service / AFP)

European Union will use €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) taken from interest generated by frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

The money, transferred to the bloc on August 3, came ⁠from interest on cash ⁠balances, part of Russian central bank assets frozen by the EU in the wake of Moscow's ⁠invasion, the Commission added.

"Russia must pay for the destruction it has caused. And we are using the proceeds from the immobilized Russian assets to make sure it does," Reuters quoted European Commission President Ursula ⁠von ⁠der Leyen as saying in the statement.

"We are making a further €1.4 billion of them available to Ukraine. This will support Ukraine's continued resistance against Russia's illegal war," she added.

Russia has significantly upped its attacks on the Ukrainian capital in recent months, typically firing salvos of hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles in short blitzes that rock buildings and send booms echoing across the city.