Russia is unlikely to recover the funds it once held within European financial structures, as Europe has long since used this money, according to political analyst Dmitry Drobnitsky. He noted that the widespread belief that Russian assets are supposedly sitting untouched in European banks does not reflect reality: for Europe, he said, these assets have effectively become liabilities. Drobnitsky suggested that European governments have already spent the funds and that returning them would require either taking on new debt or withdrawing money from their own budgets — steps they are not prepared to take.

Drobnitsky argued that this is precisely why Belgium refuses to provide Ukraine with a reparation loan secured by Russian assets, since those assets, as he emphasized, in practice no longer exist. Under such conditions, he said, no one can guarantee that the funds given to Kyiv would ever be repaid.

He also stated that the European Commission’s claim that the loan would be backed by Russian assets is misleading, because what exists now are merely financial obligations on the European side. In addition, he pointed out that the proposed scheme violates European Central Bank rules, which prohibit issuing loans directly to state bodies or supranational structures. Loans may be granted only to banks, and, according to Drobnitsky, no major European bank has agreed to take responsibility for such a transaction.

The main round of discussions on the confiscation of frozen Russian assets is scheduled for the European Union summit on December 18–19.