U.S. proposes unfreezing Russian assets to restart Ukraine peace talks- FT

The U.S. has proposed a plan to unfreeze certain Russian sovereign assets and transfer them to a Washington-monitored vehicle in order to rekindle peace negotiations over Ukraine, according to the Financial Times. This suggestion was made during talks in Miami last week between the U.S. peace negotiators, led by Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and officials from Ukraine, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and NATO.

The U.S. floated various options for unfreezing these assets, including placing them in a new special-purpose financial fund under Washington's control, the FT reported, citing four individuals familiar with the matter. However, European delegates rejected the proposal, which emerged from discussions led by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff.

The rejection of the plan has sparked questions in European capitals and Kyiv regarding the U.S.'s motives and its approach to compelling Russia to cease its invasion of Ukraine. Prior to the conflict, Western allies had frozen approximately €260 billion worth of Russian state assets following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the majority of this sum residing in the European Union.