{"id":1334244,"date":"2025-12-18T11:14:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T09:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/russia-uses-blackmail-against-the-eu-to-thwart-financial-aid-to-kyiv\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T11:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T09:14:16","slug":"russia-uses-blackmail-against-the-eu-to-thwart-financial-aid-to-kyiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/russia-uses-blackmail-against-the-eu-to-thwart-financial-aid-to-kyiv\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia uses blackmail against the EU to thwart financial aid to Kyiv"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia has launched a campaign of intimidation against the leadership of Belgium and the financial depository Euroclear in order to block the allocation of a “reparations loan” to Ukraine, based on profits from frozen Russian assets.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is reported by<\/a> The Guardian.<\/p>\n

According to sources in security structures, the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation (GRU) is behind the pressure. In particular, threats and blackmail methods were aimed directly at the management of Euroclear, the institution where most of the frozen Russian funds are currently stored.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin has paid particular attention to the depository’s CEO, Valerie Urben. Euroclear confirmed that any threats are taken extremely seriously and investigations are being conducted with the participation of law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

EUobserver previously reported that Urbain had contacted Belgian police about threats in 2024 and 2025, but these reports were later officially denied. Despite this, European officials emphasize that Russia continues to actively use intimidation methods to hinder financial support for Kyiv.<\/p>\n

As is known, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is demanding that Euroclear recover 18.1 trillion rubles (over $230 billion) for alleged “illegal actions” with Russian assets. The corresponding application was filed with the Moscow Arbitration Court.<\/p>\n

The Russian regulator claims that the depository caused it losses by restricting its ability to manage cash and securities. According to journalists, the amount of losses takes into account the amount of frozen assets, the value of securities, and the lost profit of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.<\/p>\n

European experts note that such pressure from the Kremlin is part of a systemic attempt to prevent the allocation of financial resources to Ukraine from frozen Russian assets, which are to become the basis for a “reparations loan.”<\/p>\n

Recall that diplomats of the European Union countries have reached a preliminary agreement on using frozen Russian assets to provide Ukraine with a so-called \u201creparations loan\u201d in 2026\u20132027<\/a> . The final decision is to be made by EU leaders during a meeting of the European Council.<\/p>\n

Previously, the European Union considered the possibility of isolating the Belgian government for blocking an initiative to finance Ukraine with frozen Russian assets.<\/a><\/p>\n

As reported, the Belgian government is insisting on additional guarantees from the European Union regarding the use of frozen Russian assets, despite the already proposed program for their disposal.<\/a><\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , Twitter<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia has launched a campaign of intimidation against the leadership of Belgium and the financial depository Euroclear in order to block the allocation of a “reparations loan” to Ukraine, based on profits from frozen Russian assets. This is reported by The Guardian. According to sources in security structures, the Main Directorate of the General Staff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":842966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76870,76871,76872,76885],"class_list":["post-1334244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1334244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1334244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1334244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}