Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's subsequent diplomatic efforts in Europe did not yield the expected results. As the Chinese publication Sohu notes, it was Germany that made the decision Kyiv feared most - it rejected the initiative to confiscate Russia's frozen assets in favor of Ukraine.
It turned out that the German parliament - the Bundestag put the draft appeal put forward by the Green Party to a vote and did not receive it by a majority of votes. This initiative envisioned the full transfer of frozen Russian assets in Europe to Ukraine within the framework of the "Group of Seven" (G7).
The Bundestag's Committee on Financial Issues had previously recommended rejecting this document. According to the voting results, 455 deputies supported the committee's conclusion, 77 voted against, and another 53 abstained.
The "Greens" faction demanded the transfer of more than 210 billion euros of Russian assets frozen in Europe to Ukraine "within the framework of international law." However, representatives of the ruling coalition - the XDI/XSI and the GSDP - did not support this approach. They emphasized that the idea of providing assistance to Ukraine from Russian assets could only be implemented within the framework of the limited mechanism proposed by the European Commission, without fundamentally rejecting it.
The opposition party "Alternative for Germany" (AdG) strongly opposed this initiative. One of the party's leaders, Stefan Koyter, assessed this idea as "legally controversial, economically dangerous, and an open threat to German interests." According to him, there are still German companies operating in Russia, and they may be at risk of retaliatory measures, even expropriation.
AdG deputy Guy Gottschalk called the initiative a "simple and thoughtless decision," warning of the risk of a long-term political and economic gap between Germany and Russia. In his opinion, Moscow will remain a neighbor of Germany, and it is important to restore relations in the future.
The Sohu publication assessed the Bundestag's decision as a personal political defeat for Zelenskyy, writing that the Ukrainian leader expected decisive support specifically from Germany. According to the publication, Kyiv's hopes for Russian assets did not materialize.
At the same time, German Chancellor Friedrich Mers has repeatedly emphasized the impossibility of confiscating state property without legal grounds, reminding that this issue is extremely complex.
In conclusion, it is clear that the issue of using Russian assets within the framework of Europe will still cause long debates. Decisions on financial support that Ukraine expects are still on paper.
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