Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha thanked Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Alvares on Friday for Spain, together with Sweden, Poland and the Netherlands, has sent a letter to the European Commission requesting the use of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s budgetary and military needs.
Through a message on his social networks, Andrii Sybiha thanked Maria Stenergard, Radoslaw Sikorski, Tom Berendsen and José Manuel Albares on behalf of the Ukrainian government for their letter to unlock the 210,000 million euros of Russian assets held by the EU, mostly in Belgium.
Sybiha stressed that Russia «refuses to end the war and instead intensifies terrorism. Ukraine needs to cover the financial shortfall resulting from increased defense spending and reconstruction costs.»
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For this reason, he praised the decision of Albares and his European colleagues, and described as «simply correct and logical» to use Russian assets, «instead of depending solely on European taxpayers’ money», to cover «the additional costs of defending Ukraine and the rest of Europe against the Russian threat».
ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION
Albares held a telephone conversation with Sybiha on Thursday, in which, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, they focused on the increasingly complex situation in the Black Sea. Russia continues to deliberately attack Ukraine’s ports and sea routes, using food as a weapon and threatening global food security.
The ministers stressed the need to ensure freedom of navigation and unhindered access for Ukrainian agricultural exports to world markets. They also paid particular attention to strengthening Ukraine’s air defence and increasing sanctions pressure on Russia.
The ministers also discussed Ukraine’s progress on the road to EU membership and the need to open other negotiation clusters and the aforementioned use of frozen Russian assets in favour of Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction.
