President Trump’s rancorous threat to abandon Ukraine is stoking support for a long-debated proposal to use billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to buy weapons for Ukraine and finance its reconstruction.
The money — roughly $300 billion owned by Russia’s central bank — was frozen by the United States, the European Union, Britain and others after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The aim was to punish President Vladimir V. Putin for his unprovoked attack and to cut off funds he could use to wage war.
As the war grinds on into its fourth year, a growing number of officials in Europe and elsewhere have been calling for the money to be released to directly compensate Ukraine.
How its this question still going?
Why hasn’t it been done yet?
If the assets remain frozen then they can be used as bargaining chips.
A partial transfer could be useful, but a full transfer of assets to Ukraine would be counterproductive.
Bargaining chips for what? Negotiating peace? A truce? A cease fire? There’s been ample time to do that and here we are.