---
title: "Ukraine Presses EU for Frozen Russian Assets as Its Budget Gap Could Reach $78 Billion"
description: "Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko took the plea to Brussels donors as NATO’s chief convened with European defense leaders."
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-10-01T04:50:46.337Z
modified: 2026-10-01T06:03:10Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/ukraine-presses-eu-for-frozen-russian-assets-as-its-budget-g-88033e
language: en
tags: ["ukraine", "russia", "hybrid-warfare", "defense", "economy", "europe", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Ukraine Presses EU for Frozen Russian Assets as Its Budget Gap Could Reach $78 Billion

*Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko took the plea to Brussels donors as NATO’s chief convened with European defense leaders.*

By rews desk · October 1, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/ukraine-presses-eu-for-frozen-russian-assets-as-its-budget-g-88033e

## In brief

- Ukraine told the EU its financial and military shortfall next year could reach $78 billion (€68.77 billion)
- Sergii Marchenko urged tapping the €210 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets, most held at Euroclear in Brussels
- Kyrylo Budanov said drone partners could gain access to Ukraine’s newest technology for intercepting jet-powered drones
- Estonia accused Russia of an August arson attack on a drone maker as NATO chief Mark Rutte joined a Brussels defense summit
- Ursula von der Leyen opened her Western Balkans tour in Albania, skipping Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina before their elections

Ukraine’s finance minister pressed the European Union on Tuesday to put frozen Russian state assets behind Kyiv’s war effort, warning that his country’s financial and military shortfall next year could reach $78 billion, Euronews reported.

Sergii Marchenko made the appeal in Brussels, in meetings with representatives of allied donors and financial institutions, calling the money both a practical and a fair answer to Ukraine’s wartime costs, officials with knowledge of the private discussions said, according to Euronews. He argued it would safeguard Ukraine’s debt sustainability and hold Moscow accountable for the invasion. The figure is equivalent to €68.77 billion.

The bloc holds €210 billion of that sovereign Russian money, most of it at Euroclear, the depository in Brussels. Mr. Marchenko acknowledged the politics are difficult and urged the bloc to build a centralized, legally sound framework for using the funds.

The appeal landed in a continent on alert. Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, and Andrius Kubilius, the European commissioner for defense and space, headlined the Euronews Defense and Space Summit at Brussels’ Albert Hall on Thursday, with Bulgaria’s president, Rumen Radev, among the guests. Ukraine is heading into its fifth wartime winter, and European officials are warning of escalating Russian hybrid attacks, from sabotage and arson to frequent drone incursions.

On Wednesday, Estonia publicly blamed Russia for an arson attack in August against a major Estonian drone manufacturer, and the NATO alliance vowed not to let the mounting threats curb support for Kyiv.

From Kyiv came an offer of something in return. Countries that have signed drone cooperation agreements with Ukraine could gain access to its newest technology for intercepting Russia’s jet-powered drones, beyond the interceptors already built for conventional Shahed models, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said in an exclusive interview with Euronews. “This isn’t about any specific product. It’s, in principle, about cooperation between countries on similar products,” Mr. Budanov said. Demand runs wide: [at least six NATO allies have bought or ordered an American-built counter-drone system](https://rews.cc/a/at-least-six-nato-allies-buy-or-order-us-merops-counter-dron-ea2a46) after it proved itself in Ukraine.

Euronews was also given access to the air-defense troops guarding the Kyiv region. With the drones arriving faster and higher, crews said they sometimes have 10 to 15 seconds to react, and some said the intensity of recent attacks has left them with as little as an hour and a half of sleep.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, opened her annual Western Balkans tour in Albania, with Kosovo and Montenegro planned for Thursday and North Macedonia on Friday. Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are off the itinerary this year ahead of elections in both, a decision that follows Ms. von der Leyen’s Strasbourg speech condemning the glorification of the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić at his Belgrade funeral. EU officials noted she delivered that passage in French and read it as a pointed message to President Emmanuel Macron of France, who warmly welcomed President Aleksandar Vučić of Serbia in early September.

The trip comes at a decisive stretch for enlargement. To clear room for it, the Commission postponed its pre-enlargement policy reviews from Sept. 30 to Oct. 6. Montenegro, the accession frontrunner, must resolve a dispute with Croatia to keep its goal of joining by 2028, with Brussels mediating. Albania is expected to receive formal backing for a roadmap aimed at completing its preparations by the end of 2027. And Ms. von der Leyen will face questions in Kosovo and North Macedonia over why the roadmaps she announced in her State of the Union address cover only Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine.