Russia presses for Release of Frozen $280 Billion to continue war
Russian officials are quietly lobbying Western governments to release an estimated $280 billion in frozen sovereign assets, according to Ukrainian intelligence reports. The effort, reportedly spearheaded by Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and a longtime confidant of President Vladimir Putin, signals growing economic pressure on the Kremlin as it seeks to sustain its war in Ukraine.
The assets—primarily foreign currency reserves held by central banks in Europe and North America—were immobilized in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. At the time, Western leaders described the move as a critical financial blow, designed to restrict Russia’s capacity to fund aggression and to hold the state accountable for violations of international law.
Now, with the war entering its fourth year and military expenditures consuming a growing share of Russia’s federal budget, those reserves have taken on new urgency in Moscow. Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, stated this week that Dmitriev is actively working to build support for unfreezing the funds, describing the effort as a strategic priority for the Kremlin.
Russia’s economy, though still functioning, is under significant strain. Defence spending is expected to reach as much as 40% of the federal budget in 2025, according to Russian officials.
International sanctions have cut access to capital markets, limited technology imports, and driven down real incomes. While wartime industrial production has increased, broader sectors—such as construction, transport, and manufacturing—have reported contraction or stagnation.
The push to unlock frozen reserves is widely seen as an attempt to relieve this pressure without requiring painful domestic fiscal adjustments. But it has raised concerns among Western diplomats and analysts, who warn that releasing the assets without binding conditions could provide Russia with the means to prolong the war.
“Returning these funds now would directly support Russia’s ability to continue financing military operations in Ukraine,” said a European official familiar with the ongoing discussions. “There is no indication that Moscow is prepared to alter its strategic objectives or scale back its aggression.”
Although some legal pathways for repurposing the frozen assets to support Ukraine are under consideration—particularly within the European Union—there has so far been little appetite for returning them to Russian control. Officials across NATO capitals have reiterated that any decision must align with international legal frameworks and broader accountability goals.
Still, the sustained lobbying effort underscores the Kremlin’s increasing reliance on financial diplomacy to navigate the economic toll of war. What began as an effort to buffer Russia from sanctions in 2022 has now become a campaign to recover lost assets in 2025.
Despite most Russia watchers already being accustomed to Western policy makers plumbing the depths of naivety on every Russia related issue, this would shock even the most jaded among them.
