• US allows oil sales from Russia’s Sakhalin-2 project with Japan in mind
• Zelensky tells Europe: use frozen assets to end Moscow’s ‘appetite for war’
WASHINGTON/KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky will be in Brussels on Thursday to convince European partners to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, despite Washington pressuring EU countries against the plan, a Ukrainian official said.
The European Union has laid out a plan to use the frozen assets to harness 90 billion euros ($105 billion) for a loan to help Ukraine repel Moscow’s forces, with the money to be paid back by any eventual Russian reparations to Ukraine.
“The US administration is pressuring European countries to abandon the idea of using Russian assets to support Ukraine,” a senior Ukrainian official said Wednesday.
The plan has the strong backing of many member states, including Germany, but has drawn opposition from others, including Belgium — home to international deposit organisation Euroclear, which holds most of the assets — whose leaders fear Russian reprisals.
The Ukrainian official said that seven countries so far opposed the plan.
Washington appears to view the assets as a key bargaining chip and has looked to try to tempt Moscow to play ball by dangling the prospect that it could get back some of the cash.
A previous version of Trump’s plan to end the war also provided for Washington to use some frozen Russian assets for a US-led reconstruction of the war-torn country.
Around 200 billion euros in Russian central bank assets were frozen over Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
‘Waiver’
The US extended on Wednesday a waiver allowing oil sales from Russia’s Sakhalin-2 project through June 18 next year, a move that likely allows production of liquefied natural gas from the project to continue.
The general license, issued by the US Treasury Department, is important for US ally Japan, which gets about 9% of its LNG from Russia. The license allowing transactions with Sakhalin-2 is a waiver of sanctions that had been imposed on the project by former President Joe Biden in 2022 over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The move came despite pressure in trade negotiations by the administration of President Donald Trump on China, India, and Japan to reduce their purchases of Russian oil and LNG.
The department also extended a waiver, also through June 18, allowing transactions involving Russian banks, including Gazprombank, related to civil nuclear power.
‘Pointless’
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukraine’s allies on Wednesday to secure support for Kyiv and show Russia that continuing its war is “pointless,” ahead of a crucial European Union summit on Moscow’s frozen assets.
“The outcome of these meetings, the outcome for Europe must be such that Russia feels that its desire to continue fighting next year will be pointless, because Ukraine will have support,” Zelenskiy said in his evening address.
He called on Ukraine’s partners to decide on using the nearly $250 billion of frozen Russian sovereign assets in the European Union, most of it held in Belgium’s Euroclear, to support a loan for Ukraine.
EU governments agreed last week to freeze the assets for as long as needed instead of voting every six months on extending this status. Some European leaders have opposed the plan as they fear it opens them up to legal risk.
“We need all our partners to have the courage to see the truth, acknowledge the truth, and act accordingly,” Zelenskiy said. He added that Russia was showing with its actions that it intended to continue fighting next year.
“Allies in the United States often say that Russia seems to want to end the war. But Russia is sending completely different rhetoric and signals, including official orders to its army.” In Moscow on Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would take more land in Ukraine by force if Kyiv and European politicians whom he cast as “young pigs” did not engage over US proposals for a peace settlement.
