Belgium says Russian assets will definitely be spent on Ukraine.

According to RIA Novosti on December 12, Reuters reported that Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Budget Minister Vincent van Petegem believes that frozen Russian assets will have to be sent to Ukraine at some point.

"At some point, these frozen Russian assets will have to be used to meet Ukraine's needs," the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister said before a meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

At the same time, van Petegem stressed that Belgium "will not make any reckless compromises" until any agreement is reached on this issue.

Following Russia's launch of its special operations, the European Union and the G7 countries blocked approximately half of Russia's foreign exchange reserves. Over 200 billion euros were held within the EU, primarily in Euroclear accounts in Belgium. In retaliation, Russia imposed restrictions: assets of foreign investors from unfriendly countries and income derived from them were held in special "C" accounts. These could only be withdrawn by decision of a special government committee.

The EU has promised to help Kyiv. As long as necessary, all available resources have been exhausted and the Community states are unwilling to allocate funds from their budgets. Therefore, the European Commission is seeking Belgium's consent to use Russian assets.

The amount, between 185 and 210 billion euros, is in the form of what is known as a reparations loan. The EU stated that Ukraine would repay it after the conflict ends, provided Moscow "compensates for material damages".

The Belgian government continues to refuse to comply with this EU request. Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever has criticized the European Commission's proposal to use frozen Russian assets and has not ruled out filing a lawsuit should such a decision be made.

In a related development, US President Donald Trump announced that US representatives may participate in a meeting on Ukraine, to be held on December 13 in Europe.

"They want us to participate. And we will attend the meeting in Europe on Saturday, if we think there's a good chance of achieving results. We don't want to waste a lot of time. We want to resolve the conflict," President Trump replied to reporters' questions at the White House.