New developments have recently emerged in the Russia-Ukraine conflict peace negotiation process, with the contest among all parties over ceasefire conditions and asset arrangements continuing to intensify. Against this backdrop, the United States has put forward a new plan involving Russia's frozen sovereign assets, attempting to inject new momentum into the stalled peace negotiations.
According to media reports on Thursday, the United States has proposed to European countries that some Russian sovereign assets frozen due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict be unfrozen and transferred into a special-purpose financial vehicle supervised by Washington, in hopes of restarting peace negotiations.
Among these, Russia and the United States are working on a contract for diesel exports. According to Xinhua News Agency, Kirill Dmitriev, Special Representative of the Russian President, said on the 14th that Russia and the United States are expected to sign the first contracts for diesel supplies to the United States in the coming days. Dmitriev attended a related event at the "Russian Energy Week" forum that day.
The unfreezing proposal was put forward by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner during multiparty talks held in Miami last week. However, this plan was explicitly rejected by European representatives. European officials said they firmly oppose giving up any control over the above-mentioned assets, let alone returning them to Moscow.
US Proposal Rejected on the Spot by European Allies
The above-mentioned proposal appeared during multiparty consultations held in Miami last week, with participants including peace negotiation representatives from the Trump administration, as well as officials from Ukraine, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and NATO.
The US side proposed several possible ways to unfreeze the assets, including transferring the relevant assets to a newly established special-purpose financial vehicle supervised by Washington. A US official said the issue of using Russia's frozen assets was discussed as part of a comprehensive peace agreement, and the asset release mechanism and the use of funds are still under negotiation. The official added that many ideas have been put forward regarding how Moscow's frozen assets would be used after the war.
European representatives clearly expressed opposition to this. According to people familiar with the matter, the European officials present directly told the US side that "this simply cannot happen."
About 260 Billion Euros in Assets, Most Held by the EU
In 2022, after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Western allies froze about 260 billion euros of Russian state assets, most of which are held by the European Union.
So far, the Group of Seven has provided Ukraine with 45 billion euros in loans backed by interest income generated from the above-mentioned EU-frozen assets. However, many European countries oppose using the underlying assets themselves, citing mainly legal concerns.
EU leaders promised at the end of last year that if Russia refuses to pay war reparations, they will use the above-mentioned assets for Ukraine's post-war reconstruction. But any decision to unfreeze requires consensus among all 27 EU member states, which is almost impossible to achieve under the current circumstances.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian state media on Wednesday as saying that Moscow will "do everything possible to recover the stolen assets," including through legal work, court proceedings, and judicial pursuit.
The Plan Is Not the First of Its Kind
It is worth noting that a similar proposal is not appearing for the first time. According to reports, a year ago the Trump administration's 28-point peace plan already included related content, but at that time it also failed to gain approval from all parties.
Ukrainian officials participating in the peace talks said the issue of frozen assets had previously been mentioned in multiple meetings with the US side. Ukraine and some European countries had also previously called for using the frozen assets to support Ukraine. US officials said Washington has asked Kyiv to propose specific plans for the use of funds from any source and to work with the World Bank to advance anti-corruption reforms and establish accountability mechanisms.
The exposure of this proposal once again puts the substantive progress of Russia-Ukraine peace talks and internal Western divisions under the market spotlight. The obvious rift between European allies and Washington on the issue of asset disposal has created more uncertainty about the predictability of the peace process.
For investors, the final direction of the frozen assets—whether used for Ukraine's reconstruction, returned to Russia as a bargaining chip, or maintained as the status quo—will have a profound impact on European financial markets, Ukraine's reconstruction financing arrangements, and the pricing of related sovereign debt. At present, the positions of all parties are clearly divided, and the outcome of the negotiations remains highly uncertain.
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