OREANDA-NEWS The authorities of the European Union (EU) will not be able to transfer to Kiev the proceeds from Russia's assets blocked in Western countries in the amount of 5.2 billion euros until the end of the conflict in Ukraine. This is reported by Reuters with reference to a senior official at the EU.

The agency's interlocutor clarified that it would be very difficult to gain access to the income accumulated from the end of February 2022 to February 2023 from Russian assets blocked in the West "retroactively". Since the EU "decided to clarify the legal status of these funds only on February 12, the accumulated income will not be transferred to Kiev until the final settlement" of the military conflict.

Only after that, it will be possible to count on the transfer of these revenues to Ukraine, the European official added. "We will have to wait until the final settlement at the end of the conflict," the source concluded.

Earlier, the European Commission (EC) proposed to direct profits from Russian assets frozen in the West to support the defense industry in Ukraine. In particular, it was about the possibility of using these funds to finance the purchase of weapons for Kiev. Due to this, the EU wants to strengthen bilateral ties with Ukraine.