European leaders reject proposed US control of frozen Russian assets

European leaders rejected a US proposal to transfer control of some frozen Russian sovereign assets to a Washington-managed fund, according to the Financial Times and statements made during the EU summit in Brussels on 15 October.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said assets immobilised in Europe should remain under European control. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo opposed their release and said governments should instead explore further ways to use them to support Ukraine.

Austria's Chancellor Christian Stocker raised concerns about moving the money under US jurisdiction, citing the changing direction of American policy. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said European governments should determine the fate of frozen assets and sanctions.

The Financial Times reported that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner raised the idea during discussions with Ukrainian, European and NATO representatives in Miami. According to people briefed on those talks, the funds could have been transferred into a special-purpose financial structure overseen by Washington.

An American official said possible uses of immobilised Russian assets were being discussed in the context of a comprehensive peace arrangement. The mechanism, the beneficiaries and the conditions for any release had not been agreed.

The Kyiv Independent reported that about €200 billion of Russian assets are held frozen in the European Union. That is an estimate of the funds held within the bloc, not an amount that governments have agreed to transfer or spend.

The EU had previously used income arising from immobilised Russian assets to support international financing arrangements for Ukraine. Proposals concerning the underlying principal raise different political and legal questions, and no decision to transfer ownership was reported.

The disagreement emerged as EU leaders discussed how to finance Ukraine during continuing Russian attacks. Draft summit conclusions called for leaders to return to the financing issue rather than announce an agreed asset transfer.

The reported US approach and European refusals are linked to negotiations over the same pool of frozen assets; they do not mean the EU has adopted a new mechanism for confiscating or releasing that money.

European leaders had not announced a final settlement of the Russian-assets question in the supplied reports. Their public statements instead rejected relinquishing control to the United States while keeping possible European funding uses under discussion.