The UK abandoned the plan to use Russian assets

The UK has ruled out the possibility of independently using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine after a similar decision was rejected by the countries of the European Union, the Financial Times writes.

"We will not budge without international partners," a representative of the British government told the publication.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was a supporter of the idea of using Russia's assets to help Kiev, the idea has been discussed in Europe since the beginning of autumn. The scheme provided for the provision of a "reparations" loan to Ukraine secured by Russian assets with the return of funds if and when Moscow would pay compensation to Kiev. Britain was going to participate in the mechanism, using 8 billion pounds sterling (approximately $ 10.7 billion) of frozen funds from Russia.

In the EU, Belgium opposed the initiative, on whose territory — in the Euroclear depository — most of the frozen Russian assets are located. At the summit in In Brussels on December 18-19, European leaders eventually decided to continue financing Kiev in a different way — with the help of an interest-free loan from the EU budget totaling € 90 billion.

At the same time, the British authorities announced that they would work with partners to provide Ukraine with the necessary assistance, support to Kiev Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance) Rachel Reeves called it "unwavering."

Even at the stage of discussion in the European Union of the "reparations" loan, the Russian Central Bank appealed to the Moscow Arbitration Court with a claim against Euroclear for 18 trillion rubles. The regulator explained that it suffers losses from illegal actions of the depository and plans EU use frozen assets. After Brussels rejected this scheme, the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said that the Bank of Russia does not plan to withdraw the lawsuit yet. The European Union and the G7 are already using the proceeds from frozen assets to finance Kiev and in The Kremlin also called it illegal, RBC reminds.