Witkoff and Kushner proposed unfreezing Russia’s assets: what did the Europeans respond?
Кушнер та Віткофф / фото з відкритих джерел
The United States has proposed unfreezing some Russian state assets and placing them under Washington’s control in order to resume talks to end the war in Ukraine. European representatives have rejected the proposal.
This was reported by the Financial Times, citing four sources familiar with the negotiations.
New details emerged after talks in Miami last week, which included representatives from the US, Ukraine, France, Germany, the UK, the EU and NATO.
According to the publication, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner proposed several ways to unfreeze Russian funds. One of them involved transferring the assets to a special financial structure under US supervision.
European representatives opposed it, refusing to hand over control of the assets to Washington or return any part of them to Moscow.
A US official confirmed that the use of Russian assets was being discussed as part of a possible peace deal. There is no final decision on their unfreezing and use.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion, Western countries froze some €260 billion in Russian state assets, most of which are in the EU. The proceeds are being used to finance aid to Ukraine.
The Trump administration is also considering easing sanctions on vessels in the so-called “shadow fleet,” including those that previously transported Russian oil. According to Reuters, this would allow sanctioned tankers to be used to transport oil not subject to US restrictions, in order to reduce the cost of maritime transportation.
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