Chancellor Friedrich Merz considers key financial aspects of the US plan to end the war in Ukraine to be “unacceptable.” The Americans would not be able to use the Russian central bank money fixed in the EU, said the CDU politician in an ARD interview after the end of the G20 summit in Johannesburg. The demand to add another 100 billion dollars (87 billion euros) from Europe is also not something that can be approved from a German perspective.
Merz also pointed out that the EU is currently planning to use Russian assets held in the European Union for a loan to Ukraine in order to enable it to purchase further arms. According to internal Brussels documents, theoretically usable Russian state assets worth around 210 billion euros were seized in the EU because of the Ukraine war. In other countries outside the EU it was only around 42 billion euros.
The controversial US plan to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine calls for $100 billion in frozen Russian assets to be invested in US-led efforts to rebuild Ukraine. The USA should receive 50 percent of the profits from this project.
Europe is also expected to contribute a further $100 billion to increase the investment volume available for the reconstruction of Ukraine. The remaining part of the frozen Russian funds is to be placed in a separate US-Russian investment vehicle. This is intended to promote joint projects in order to “strengthen relationships and increase common interests”.
