A group of Republican and Democratic U.S. senators is pushing President Donald Trump’s administration to transfer more than $300 billion of seized Russian assets to help Ukraine. According to them, using the debt’s interest to support Kyiv is not enough.
Senators asked questions in a letter signed by Republicans Todd Young and Lindsey Graham and Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Tim Kaine. This marked a rare instance of senior Republicans publicly urging a tougher stance on Russia. Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Tim Kaine also signed it.
One of the questions was, “How does the Administration view using all financial tools at its disposal to increase pressure on Russia to end the war?” Well, if asked, Trump is good at using whatever he can to put pressure on people.
Another question was, “Specifically, does the Administration believe that U.S. and EU-held assets should be used as leverage in negotiations with Russia to bring an end to the war? If so, how?”
Their letter, sent on March 21, coincided with U.S.-Russia negotiations in Saudi Arabia, where officials discussed a potential Black Sea maritime ceasefire as a first step to broader peace talks.
Senators ask Trump to push allies to cease assets that will help Ukraine
In the letter, the senators asked the administration if it planned to push the EU, G7, and other partners to help Ukraine by using Russian government assets. In addition, they asked if Ukraine could use these funds to buy defence equipment.
This is not the first time questions have been asked. For years, U.S. lawmakers have pushed for Russia’s frozen assets to be used to help rebuild Ukraine instead of American government money.
Russia invaded Ukraine in full in 2022, and the US and its partners froze between $300 billion and $350 billion in Russian government assets. Most of which were held in European banks. They are mostly U.S., British, and European government bonds kept in a European assets depository. According to sources, only about $7 billion exists in U.S. banks.
Due to legal worries, Washington has not fully seized the assets. Furthermore, it has never before seized central bank assets from a country with which it is not at war. On this record, it has chosen to use the interest earnings to help Ukraine.
What are the odds that all frozen assets will be released?
European leaders want to use those assets to help rebuild Ukraine. However, they have yet to reach an agreement on how to avoid legal challenges or set a bad example for the rest of the world.
In addition, European officials have decided to back loans to Ukraine with interest income from the frozen Russian assets but not the assets themselves.
On the other hand, Moscow has a different stance. It said that any possible transfer of assets is theft and has apparently said that it is willing to use frozen European funds for reconstruction as long as some of the money goes to help the parts of Ukraine that Russia occupies.
The U.S. has the “Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act,” which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 2024 and signed into law by former President Joe Biden that April. The law gave the president of the United States the power to send Russian assets that were taken in the United States to Ukraine.
The US is most likely to release the assets.
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