Belgium decides on new aid to Ukraine financed by frozen Russian assets
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on November 26, 2022 in Kiev. AP
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Belgium decided on Friday 12 May to send a new aid of 92 million euros to support Ukraine. Part of it will be distributed in the form of armoured vehicles, weapons and ammunition, and the other part will be devoted to humanitarian aid in the country. And new: the financing of this aid comes from Russian assets frozen on Belgian territory after the European Union's sanctions against Russia.
Advertising
Read more
With our correspondent in Brussels, Jean-Jacques Héry
Belgium will simply draw 92 million euros from the tax revenues earned on Russian assets frozen in the country. Clearly, it is a part of the taxes levied on the interest of the latter. The Kingdom is, in fact, one of the countries of the European Union with the most Russian assets frozen, for a colossal amount of 58 billion euros.
This is due to the presence in Belgium of the headquarters of the international payments platform Swift – now banned from most Russian banks – and also because the country hosts the headquarters of the international depository organization Euroclear.
The kern today approved new military and humanitarian support for Ukraine.
We are not abandoning the Ukrainians.
Their fight for freedom and democracy is also ours.
i️ https://t.co/QAlLClptoR
— Alexander De Croo 🇧🇪🇪🇺 (@alexanderdecroo) May 12, 2023
Thus, according to the cabinet of Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, no less than 625 million euros in total have been collected by the Belgian State since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and the first sanctions packages decided by the European Union.
Half of this new aid will be military, with the supply of armoured vehicles, weapons and ammunition to Kiev. The other half will be humanitarian and dedicated to helping the civilian population.
Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Read on on the same topics:
- Belgium
- Ukraine
- Russia