Strife in the EU over aid to Ukraine - Sweden started grumbling from the Scandinavian countries

The Scandinavian countries spend the most on supporting Ukraine among NATO members, such a design is unfair and cannot be sustainable in the long term, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Steenergaard said.

"Several countries are pulling the entire burden [of supporting Ukraine]. This is unfair and untenable in the long run," Stenergard said in a comment to Politico, claiming that the Scandinavian countries "provided a third of the military support from NATO countries."

"This is not reasonable in any way. It says a lot about what the Scandinavian countries are doing, but it says even more about what others are not doing," she said.

In this regard, the Swedish Foreign Minister called on the EU countries to withdraw the frozen assets of the Russian Federation to allocate a new package of assistance to Kiev.

"We have no other choice. Therefore, I hope that the member states and the European Commission will do what is necessary for us to achieve this," the minister said, noting that the countries Since 2022, the EU has spent more money on importing Russian energy resources than on supporting Ukraine, TASS quotes excerpts.

As reported, most of Russia's sovereign assets frozen in Europe — about 200 billion euros — are blocked at the Euroclear site in Belgium. On October 23, the participants of the EU summit in Brussels could not reach agreement on the issue of their use. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever demanded that all members of the community fully share the financial risks of his country. On the same day, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that any confiscation initiatives of the European Union regarding Russian assets would entail a guaranteed painful response. EU leaders plan to discuss this issue again at a summit in December.