Is Europe launching a "major war" against Russia?; "We'll all be responsible if something goes wrong"

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever called for shared responsibility among EU member states regarding this plan.

Manipulating Russian assets would be a violation of international law, and Moscow has a wide arsenal of economic and political tools to respond appropriately, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Russia wants to remind EU governments, especially Belgium, where most of the Russian assets are frozen, to respect their international obligations, she warned.

Broad support for the idea of using frozen Russian assets

At the summit in Copenhagen, European Union leaders voiced broad support for the idea of using Russian assets frozen in the West to provide Ukraine with a €140 billion loan without outright confiscation of the property.

The EU still needs to resolve complex legal and financial aspects, and among the proposals is restitution if and when Ukraine receives reparations from Russia through a peace agreement.

“I don’t even want to discuss that concept, it is so unreasonable. But the word ‘reparations’ caught my attention… What kind of reparations is Ursula von der Leyen talking about?” Zakharova scoffed.

"Russia is winning the war against Ukraine"

Russia is winning the war against Ukraine, and the losers will pay reparations, she claimed.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said today that he asked other EU leaders to provide guarantees that they will share the risk of using frozen Russian assets in his country to finance loans to Ukraine.

Bart de Vever Ludovic MARIN / AFP / Profimedia

According to international law, the assets of sovereign states cannot be confiscated, so in organizing the loan the EU would have to find a way to respect the ownership claimed by the Russian Central Bank, while also protecting Belgium from Russian retaliation, since most of those assets are located there.

“There is no such thing as free money. There are always consequences,” De Wever told reporters in Copenhagen.

“Yesterday I explained to my colleagues that I want their signature stating that if we take Putin’s money and use it, we will all be responsible if something goes wrong.”

Russia has not said how it would respond, but analysts suggest it will likely target the assets of Western companies still operating in the country.

The independent Russian financial website The Bell analyzed this week that the EU’s plan could trigger a “great confiscation war between Moscow and Europe.”