Reports have emerged that the United States proposed unfreezing a portion of frozen Russian government assets to European partners in an effort to restart stalled peace negotiations for Ukraine.

Citing four sources familiar with the matter, the Financial Times (FT) reported on the 14th local time that a U.S. delegation met with officials from Ukraine, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union (EU), and NATO in Miami last week to pitch the proposal.

During the meeting, the U.S. side presented several concrete mechanisms for lifting the freeze, including creating a new special-purpose financial entity to transfer the unfrozen Russian assets under the supervision of the U.S. government.

European delegations reportedly expressed strong opposition to the initiative, which was allegedly spearheaded by White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.

A U.S. government official explained that the plan was put forward as part of a comprehensive peace agreement, adding that specific procedures on how the assets would be unfrozen and where they would be allocated are still under discussion.

The FT reported that the U.S. proposal sent shockwaves through European capitals and the Ukrainian government, fueling doubts about Washington's sincerity and whether its approach to pressuring Russia to halt its invasion has diverged sharply from Europe's.

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western allies froze approximately 260 billion euros (about 391 trillion won at current exchange rates) in Russian state assets, the vast majority of which are held within the EU.

While Ukraine secured 45 billion euros (about 68 trillion won) in loans from Group of Seven (G7) nations backed by interest generated from these frozen assets, European governments have been reluctant to touch the principal assets themselves due to legal risks.

EU leaders agreed late last year to use the assets to fund Ukraine's reconstruction costs if Russia fails to pay war reparations.

Consequently, unfreezing the Russian assets would require unanimous consent from all 27 EU member states, a scenario considered highly unlikely in reality.

Ukraine and some European countries have consistently maintained that these assets should be used directly to support Ukraine.

Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said through Russian state media on the 14th that "we will mobilize all legal means, trials, and judicial procedures to recover the confiscated assets."
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)