German Chancellor Strictly Urges European Union To Use Frozen Russian Assets For Ukraine

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz/DOK PHOTO via Instagram @bundeskanzler

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will urge the European Union to use frozen Russian assets in the West to provide Ukraine with a loan of 140 billion euros ($163 billion) to finance its war efforts at the upcoming EU summit.

Merz first advocated for interest-free EU loans supported by the frozen asset in late September.

"We don't want to do this to prolong the war, but to end it," Merz said in a speech at the lower house of the Bundestag parliament.

"(President of Russia Vladimir) Putin must realize that our support for Ukraine will not decrease, it will increase, and that he cannot hope to last longer than us," he continued.

United States President Donald Trump previously discussed plans to use frozen Russian assets to help Kyiv, Ukraine.

In a celebration in the Financial Times, Merz proposed providing interest-free loans to Ukraine worth around 140 billion euros (Rp2.81 quadrillion) using frozen Russian assets in Western countries.

"The Federal chancellor announced the initiative to utilize frozen Russian assets to support the Ukrainian armed forces," said German government spokesman Stefan airing, quoted by ANTARA from RIA Novosti, Monday, October 6.

Trump and Merz also discussed the development of the situation in Ukraine and agreed to continue joint efforts to end the conflict, he said.

The two leaders also discussed conditions in the Gaza Strip and agreed that negotiations in Egypt should produce a quick agreement regarding the release of hostages, cessation of hostilities, and the deployment of Hamas weapons.

Since the start of Russia's military operations in Ukraine, the European Union and G7 countries have frozen nearly half of Russia's foreign exchange reserves worth around 300 billion euros. More than 200 billion of them are kept in the European Union, especially in Belgium's Euroclear clearing agency.

In early October, the European Commission reported that it had distributed 14 billion euros to Ukraine from January to September 2025 using profits from frozen funds from Russia's central bank.