Opinion piece by Sir William Browder, founder and head of the [Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign](Sir William Browder is the author of Red Notice and Freezing Order, and head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign)
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The EU agreed to extend a €90 billion (£79 billion) interest-free loan to Ukraine, intended to safeguard the country’s defences and basic functioning for the next two years.
It was a vital lifeline but it came with a grave failure: the outright rejection of a far bolder and more just plan to confiscate Russia’s frozen central bank assets and put them to work for Ukraine.
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The assets in question amount to roughly €210 billion in Russian central bank reserves, immobilised inside the EU just weeks after Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They represent a vast war chest belonging to a regime committing mass murder, war crimes and territorial theft in plain sight. Yet they remain untouched, sitting inert in the West’s financial institutions while Ukrainian cities are reduced to rubble.
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The urgency of this moment cannot be overstated. The Brussels summit took place against a backdrop of mounting danger for both Ukraine and Europe. Since returning to office in January, President Trump has followed through on his campaign promise to slash American support for Ukraine. In February 2025, after a shameful attack on President Zelensky in the Oval Office, Trump ordered a full pause on all US military assistance. Up to that point, the United States had provided roughly 40 per cent of Ukraine’s military support. Its sudden withdrawal pushed Kyiv to the edge of disaster.
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Putin is already testing the boundaries of Western resolve. Russia’s drones have violated Polish airspace. Its fighter jets have breached Estonian skies. In the Baltic Sea, undersea cables have been cut in acts of suspected sabotage. These are calculated provocations, designed to probe Nato’s defences and measure our willingness to respond.
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Instead of making Russia pay for the destruction it has caused, we are asking citizens across Europe to underwrite Ukraine’s survival through public debt. It is a stopgap, not a solution, and it signals weakness where strength is required.
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There was, at least, one modest breakthrough. Days before the summit, the EU invoked an emergency legal mechanism to freeze Russia’s €210 billion in assets indefinitely, rather than renewing the sanctions every six months. Until now, a single member state could veto each renewal.
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What is most dispiriting is why confiscation was rejected. A small group of countries, led by leaders openly sympathetic to Moscow, blocked the plan. Hungary and Slovakia played their expected roles. More shocking was the opposition from the Czech Republic, a country with its own painful history of Russian domination. Belgium, which holds most of the assets through its Euroclear depository, ultimately refused to move forward after its prime minister [Bart De Wever] reportedly was personally threatened by the Kremlin.
This capitulation is shameful. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czechs are all net beneficiaries of EU funds. Yet they have forced the rest of Europe’s 450 million citizens to shoulder the cost of supporting Ukraine, while Putin’s money remains untouched. Taxpayers in Germany, France, the Netherlands and elsewhere will now foot the bill. The Kremlin, meanwhile, is openly mocking Europe’s timidity.
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History teaches us that financial pressure can succeed where diplomacy fails. Russia may not count its dead but it surely count its money. Seizing those frozen reserves would strike at the heart of Putin’s system and hasten an end to the war.
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This debate is not over. The assets remain frozen. The war continues. The moral case for confiscation grows stronger every day. Europe’s leaders must return to this issue. Countries that obstruct justice should face consequences, including reductions in EU funding to offset the cost of the loan. Belgium’s prime minister should be shamed for yielding to intimidation. And the UK, which is not constrained by EU infighting, should set an example. Instead of copying the EU and standing down, which it announced on Friday, the UK should confiscate the billions in Russian assets frozen in London and transfer them to Ukraine.
After two decades confronting the Kremlin, I have learnt one lesson above all others: evil advances when good people hesitate. Putin invaded Ukraine expecting a divided and fearful West. We must prove him wrong. Confiscating his frozen billions is not theft. It is restitution. It is justice. And it is long overdue.
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