EU Plan To Give Frozen Russian Assets To Arm Ukraine Breaks Law: Kremlin

The Kremlin said Wednesday the European Union would be committing an "unprecedented violation" of international law if it used frozen Russian assets to arm Ukraine.

EU countries have been wrangling for months over what to do with the assets, with the bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell floating a plan to divert most of them to Ukraine on Tuesday.

"The Europeans are well aware of the damage such decisions could do to their economy, their image, their reputations as reliable guarantors," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"They will become the target of prosecution for many decades," he warned.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Wednesday warned Moscow would inevitably respond to what she called "direct banditry and theft".

The plan, set to be put before member states on Wednesday, would see 90 percent of profits made on the assets go to a fund used to cover the cost of weapons for Ukraine.

The other 10 percent would be funneled into the EU's budget, where it would be used to help increase the capacity of Ukraine's own defence industry.

The push by the EU to find more funds for Ukraine comes as a $60-billion support package from Kyiv's other major backer, the United States, remains blocked in Congress.

Dwindling weapon supplies two years into the conflict have left Ukraine's forces outgunned on the front line and struggling to halt Russian advances.

The EU froze some 200 billion euros of Russian central bank assets held in the bloc as punishment after Moscow sent troops into its neighbour in February 2022.

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