Europe holds a much larger amount of around €200 billion in immobilized Russian assets, most of which are held by Belgian’s Euroclear.
There have been mounting calls to seize the funds to support Ukraine. Earlier this month, a group of cross-party British MPs called on the government to use the frozen assets to help Kyiv in its fight against Russia.
While in Kyiv on March 15, Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters that he had discussed asset seizure with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but that it was “a complicated question.”
In Europe, similar conversations are taking place, with the French parliament passing a non-binding resolution to demand the EU seize Russian assets to support Ukraine.
However, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever threw cold water on the prospect of Europe taking the funds on Thursday evening, telling reporters that doing so would be “an act of war.”
In response to OFSI’s latest report, Economic Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds said: “The UK has frozen £25 billion worth of Russian assets and working with our allies, we have deprived Russia of over $400 billion, the equivalent to four years of Russia’s military spending. We will continue to robustly enforce our financial sanctions as part of our wider response to Russia’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine.”
