European Commission transfers €1.5 billion from frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine's defence

President of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen has said that the EC had transferred €1.5 billion from the proceeds from the reinvestment of frozen Russian assets to arms purchases for Ukraine.

“The EU stands with Ukraine. Today we transfer €1.5 billion in proceeds from immobilised Russian assets to the defence and reconstruction of Ukraine. There is no better symbol or use for the Kremlin’s money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live,” von der Leyen said on her X page, Caliber.Az reports.

On 22 July, the European Commission's high representative for foreign and security policy, Josep Borrell, said that the first tranche of funds from the expropriation of the proceeds from the frozen Russian assets worth €1.4 billion would be transferred to the European Commission in the first week of August.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Russia would respond harshly in case of a tranche of its assets to Ukraine. According to her, a decision on the response will be made on each item in the interdepartmental format.