Russia's Central Bank Launches Legal Action Against Use of Frozen Assets to Fund Ukraine

Moscow announced on Thursday that it will file lawsuits in Russian courts against European banks over attempts to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine financially.

The Central Bank of Russia said in a statement that the legal action responds to European efforts to deploy Russia’s frozen foreign reserves to aid Kyiv, describing such moves as violations of international law and sovereign property rights.

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, billions of dollars in Russian assets have been frozen across Europe under sanctions imposed by Western nations. These assets include reserves held by the Central Bank of Russia in foreign financial institutions.

In recent months, European countries have intensified discussions on how to utilize the proceeds from frozen Russian assets, or even portions of the assets themselves, to provide military and economic support to Ukraine. Moscow, however, has strongly opposed any such measures.

The Russian central bank emphasized that any attempt to access or use these assets constitutes illegal expropriation. Filing cases in Russian courts, the bank said, aims to protect the financial interests of the Russian state and its institutions.

The bank did not disclose which European banks would be targeted or provide a timeline for initiating the legal proceedings, noting only that all lawsuits will be filed within Russia.