U.S. Proposes Europe Unfreeze Russian Assets to Advance Ukraine Peace Talks
nashnova research
Washington proposed that European allies unfreeze some Russian sovereign assets and transfer them to a US-supervised vehicle to advance Ukraine peace talks — Europe refused outright, exposing an open rift within the Western bloc over who controls the leverage against Moscow.
What exactly did Washington propose?
According to the Financial Times, citing four people briefed on the matter, the US suggested unfreezing part of Russia's frozen sovereign assets and routing them into a special-purpose financial vehicle supervised by Washington.
The proposal was formally presented by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at an October 10 meeting in Miami attended by NATO, US, French, German, and EU officials alongside Ukraine.
This means → Washington wants to take the "frozen assets" card out of Europe's hand and turn it into its own bargaining chip for peace talks.
Why did Europe refuse on the spot?
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated bluntly ahead of the Brussels EU summit: "These assets are frozen in Europe and should stay in Europe. This is our business, and we decide."
European officials told the US side directly that unfreezing the assets "is simply not going to happen," according to people familiar with the exchange.
In plain terms = Europe sees this money as its own negotiating lever — handing it over would mean disarming itself at the table.
How large is the frozen pool?
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western nations froze more than €260 billion in Russian central-bank sovereign assets.
Over €210 billion of that sits within the EU, mostly held at Euroclear — Europe's largest securities depository, based in Belgium.
The EU has already built a mechanism to channel the interest income from these assets to Ukraine; Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced roughly $1.62 billion in such proceeds would go to Kyiv.
What is the bigger picture behind this move?
The proposal is part of a broader Trump-administration recalibration toward Russia: last week Trump announced a diesel-supply deal with Putin; this week Zelensky publicly said intelligence sharing has been cut or halted.
Moscow has so far rejected any "temporary" ceasefire, insisting on a lasting political settlement.
This reflects a widening US-Europe split on Russian-asset disposition that is already casting doubt on the viability of any peace-talk pathway — the negotiating table has not been set up, and the Western side is already arguing among itself.
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