London and Warsaw demand EU decide fate of €210 billion in frozen Russian assets

The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom and Poland, Ed Miliband and Radosław Sikorski, called on the European Union at the Warsaw Security Forum to return to the question of frozen Russian sovereign assets and determine their future.

Miliband stated that Europe faces important decisions on this issue and expressed London’s readiness to act jointly with the EU.

“Europe faces important decisions, including on Russian sovereign assets. I think we need to return to this question,” Miliband said.

Sikorski took a considerably harder line. When asked whether the frozen funds would ever be returned to Russia, the Polish minister was categorical.

“Only over our dead bodies,” Sikorski said.

Warsaw had previously joined the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden in urging the European Commission to find new legal options for using these funds in Ukraine’s interests.

Legal and financial risks remain the main obstacle to a decision. Approximately €210 billion in assets belonging to the Russian Central Bank are frozen in the EU, of which around €185 billion are held at the Belgian depository Euroclear. Belgium fears that if these funds are used, it will bear the brunt of potential legal claims from Russia.

In 2025, the European Union indefinitely blocked the return of these funds to Russia. The capital itself has not yet been fully confiscated — only the income generated by the frozen assets is being directed toward support for Ukraine. Moscow considers such actions illegal and is challenging them in court.

As a possible solution to the risk-distribution problem, transferring the assets to a separate structure managed by European institutions is under discussion. The European Commission is also exploring the creation of a so-called “bad bank” for Russian assets — the main goal of this initiative being to remove the blocked funds from the liability of the Belgian depository Euroclear.