(December 12-19)*</u>
Send details of actions in your city to [email protected]
December 12, 10am, in front of the European Council, Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 175
December 12, 11am, Belgian consulate, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 680
December 12, 11am, Belgian embassy, Paseo de la Castellana 18
December 14, 12am, Sergels Torg (organiser Nordic Ukraine Forum)
December 14, 12am, Vinco Kudirkos Square
December 15, 7.30am, Belgian embassy, Øster Allé 7, 2100 København
December 15, 1pm, Belgian embassy, 1 Elgin Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4
December 17, 5.30pm, Europe House,** **32 Smith Square | 6.30pm, opposite Parliament (George V statue)
December 17, 6pm, Belgian Flanders Investment and Trade office, 83 Princes Street
December 17, 5pm, Place Georges Guillaumin
December 18, 8-10am, Schuman roundabout (end Rue de la Loi)
Join us on 12 December at 10:00 in front of the European Council.
As Mr De Wever [Belgian PM] noted, Europe must work toward a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. Some say Belgium is “war-profiting” from frozen Russian assets — we hope it doesn’t. We believe Belgium can be a leader in bringing peace closer by unlocking the reparations-backed loan.
This mechanism is essential: Putin refuses real negotiations because he thinks he can outlast Western support. A predictable two-year financing package backed by frozen Russian assets destroys this strategy, strengthens Ukraine’s defence, and forces Russia to take peace seriously. Making the war more costly for the Kremlin accelerates the conditions for a real peace.
During the meeting of EU Finance Ministers, we call on Belgium to stop blocking this loan, which uses frozen Russian assets as collateral without costing EU taxpayers anything. By blocking it, Belgium weakens Europe’s collective security. Ukraine is Europe’s frontline — supporting Ukraine means protecting Europe.
Belgium holds the key to unlocking €140bn, yet refuses to use this leverage even as Russia escalates hybrid attacks on Belgian and European soil. Instead of strengthening Europe’s defence, Belgium inflates hypothetical risks. International law is clear: countermeasures against a state committing grave violations are lawful — Russia has no viable case.
What Belgium doesn’t address is the cost of inaction:
Fearing the loss of €1.7bn in revenue and investments from authoritarian regimes, Belgium chooses short-term profit over European and thus Belgian security.
Belgium must stop protecting Russian money. Its hesitation costs Ukrainian lives and risks European security in the future. Belgium must choose to show leadership.
English December 4, 2025
To: ENSU-RESU affiliates
Dear friends,
This is an urgent call from me as interim coordinator of the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine.
As you know, the Belgian government has been refusing to make available €180 billion in frozen Russian assets held by Euroclear that could back the funding that Ukraine desperately needs to continue its resistance to the Russian invasion.
Belgian prime minister Bart de Wever says he is deeply concerned about Belgium being subject to litigation over the assets in the event that sanctions on Russia are eventually lifted as part of a “peace deal”. In a December 3 statement de Wever said that Russia would not lose the war in Ukraine and called expectations of Moscow’s defeat “a fairy tale and a complete illusion.”
For this reason, he added, once Russia’s war against Ukraine ends, frozen Russian assets would ultimately need to be returned to the Kremlin. In an interview with La Libre published on December 3, De Wever also stated that Russia has issued direct threats of “eternal retaliation” if Belgium supports the confiscation of its frozen assets.
In exaggerating the dangers of Russian retaliation that Belgium would face (see this article by Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Kosenko), de Wever is himself turning into an asset for Putin. This is especially so as all reasonable Belgian concerns are addressed in the latest European Commission proposal on how to safely use the frozen Russian assets to back financial support to Ukraine.
This is why I urge ENSU-RESU affiliates to stage protests outside Belgian diplomatic offices to demand that Belgium make the Russian frozen assets available for Ukraine.
Protests should preferably take place on December 12 (date of an initial protest by the Ukrainian community in Brussels) but in any case before December 18-19 (date of the next meeting of the Council of Europe of EU heads of state which will decide on the issue).
The Ukrainian people need us to make every possible effort to make these frozen Russian assets available for their ongoing defence. Please organise whatever protest you can manage in your area.
To support your effort we shall make available DeepL translations in all necessary languages of an ENSU fact sheet/statement on issue, for correction by native speakers and distribution at the protests and also as the basis of any local media release you could make.
As soon as we are told of protests being organised we shall feature them on our Facebook and Instagram channels and on our web site.
In solidarity with Ukraine and its working people,
Szymon Martys Interim coordinator, ENSU
УКРАЇНСЬКА
4 грудня 2025 року
До: філій ENSU-RESU