President Zelensky said that Russia must pay for the war, and that the best way for this to happen is through releasing to Ukraine the nearly $300 billion in Russian assets frozen in European banks, primarily in Belgium.

Ukraine already receives the interest generated by this Russian money, and the European Union attempted to move forward with transferring the assets in the form of loans that would be guaranteed by the future war reparations Moscow is expected to pay. However, the initiative failed, with another attempt planned for early 2026.