The European Union announced on Friday it had made 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) available to aid Ukraine, the first tranche of funds earned from the profits from frozen Russian assets.
In May, the EU’s 27 member states agreed to use interest earned on about 210 billion euros ($225 billion) in Russian central bank assets to fund military aid to Ukraine and reconstruction efforts in the war-torn country.
The money, most of which is held in Belgium, was frozen as part of a package of sanctions in retaliation for Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Brussels estimates that interest on those assets could fetch about 3 billion euros each year.
“The EU stands with Ukraine. Today we transfer 1.5 billion euros obtained from frozen Russian assets to defend and rebuild Ukraine. There could be no better symbol or use of Kremlin money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.
The move comes days after Moscow announced it had recaptured two villages in eastern Ukraine. Recent advances by pro-Kremlin forces in eastern and northeastern Ukraine have yielded incremental gains, and Kiev worries that without financial support, Russia could push further.
The EU headquarters said 90 percent of the money would be put into a special fund called the European Peace Facility, which several EU countries already use to reimburse Ukraine for weapons and ammunition sent to it.
The remaining 10% will be pumped into the EU budget. This money will help boost or rebuild Ukraine’s defense industry, if some countries object to the use of its share for military purposes.
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