EU Should Consider Using Russian Foreign Exchange Reserves To Rebuild Ukraine – Josep Borrell

The European Union should consider using billions of dollars’ worth of Russian foreign exchange reserves to rebuild Ukraine after the war, the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said in an interview with the Financial Times (FT) Monday. 

“We have the money in our pockets, and someone has to explain to me why it is good for the Afghan money and not good for the Russian money,” he continued, referring to the United States’ decision to use $7 billion in frozen assets from Afghanistan’s central bank to provide humanitarian aid inside the country and compensate victims of terrorism after the Taliban seized power.

Western countries have frozen roughly $315 billion worth of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

Since then, EU officials have been debating whether the sanctioned assets could somehow be deployed to reconstruct Ukraine when the war finally ends, however no concrete policy proposals have been tabled.

Some context: In April, Russia’s Central Bank threatened to take legal action against the US and EU in an attempt to try and unfreeze its gold and foreign reserves. However, it is unclear when or in what jurisdiction a legal challenge could be made.