France opposed the use of frozen assets of the Russian Federation

France opposes the use of frozen Russian assets to finance military spending Ukraine, as this "contradicts international agreements." This was announced on March 4 by French Economy Minister Eric Lombard in an interview franceinfo.

"France's position is that these are Russian assets...They belong, in particular, to the Central Bank of Russia," said Lombar.

He added that these assets can be used as part of a conflict settlement, but they "cannot be seized." According to him, such actions contradict the international agreements signed by France and Europe.

Earlier, on March 3, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that attempts to seize Russia's frozen assets for transfer to Ukraine would have href="https://iz.ru/1847963/2025-03-03/v-kremle-predupredili-o-posledstviah-peredaci-zamorozennyh-aktivov-rf-kievu " target="_blank">serious legal consequences. He noted that there have been more and more such ideas in the West lately. According to him, the sensible voices of those who urge to come to their senses and not destroy the trust of investors turned out to be in the minority.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on February 24 that Russian assets frozen by the European Union (EU) cannot be confiscated, since this initiative contradicts the laws of international law. In turn, the head of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, announced on February 4 that the EU was working on href="https://iz.ru/1833563/2025-02-04/v-ek-zaiavili-o-tvorcheskom-ispolzovanii-rossiiskikh-aktivov-dlia-pomoshchi-ukraine " target="_blank">the "most creative" use of Russian frozen assets to provide assistance to Ukraine.