On 4 September, British Defence Secretary John Healey said during a visit to Kyiv that the UK had for the first time financed arms supplies to Ukraine directly from frozen Russian assets.
According to Healey, £1 billion (approximately €1.2 billion) was used to purchase and transfer artillery shells, air defence missiles, drones and spare parts to Ukraine, as well as to conclude new contracts for the maintenance and repair of military equipment. Since the beginning of 2025, the UK has already allocated £4.5 billion (approximately €5.3 billion) in military aid to Ukraine. In addition, London has provided Kiev with a £2.26 billion loan, which is to be repaid from the profits generated by frozen Russian assets. After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries froze more than €260 billion in assets belonging to the Russian Central Bank. Most of these assets (around €190 billion) are held in the Belgian depository Euroclear.
The issue of confiscating these funds has been discussed repeatedly in the EU, but European leaders have deemed this measure legally risky. So the decision was to spend money earned on frozen assets but not the assets themselves.
In January 2025, the United Kingdom and Ukraine signed an agreement on political cooperation, free trade and strategic partnership for 100 years. The document bears witness to the will of the parties to fortify cooperation in the defence sphere and coordinate its actions in the area of security.
