Why won’t the West use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine?

Since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, there has been a great deal of temptation to seize Russian sovereign assets frozen in the West. There is, after all, an urgent need and moral imperative to make the aggressor pay and use Russia’s money for Ukraine’s cause. But the reality is that unless European governments show urgent determination, Russian money is unlikely to be used to support Ukraine in its totality any time soon. 

Amid the spat between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump last week, which resulted in the US stopping military aid to Ukraine, the issue of financial support for Kyiv has never been more critical. No wonder, then, that the plan to use Russian frozen assets to buy arms and time for Ukraine has resurfaced.

This idea has been floating around since the start of the war, supported by the US and the UK.