(SeaPRwire) –   Polish PM Donald Tusk says the bloc is likely to stick to various “indirect mechanisms” to tap into frozen Russian assets

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has admitted that the EU is “light years away” from using frozen Russian assets to militarily support Ukraine or “rebuild” the country.

Finding themselves lacking unlimited military support from the US, EU leaders have been seeking a legal mechanism to use Russia’s sovereign funds to continue arming Ukraine. The idea of accessing these funds, most likely by using them as collateral for loans to Ukraine, has been strongly opposed within the bloc and by legal scholars.

Tusk said on Monday that the EU is likely to use “various indirect mechanisms” to access the assets rather than seizing them outright. The PM made these remarks while commenting on the EU’s recent move to tighten its grip on frozen Russian assets and prevent their premature release.

“From that point to the potential use of these funds for rebuilding Ukraine – not to mention military support for Ukraine – we are still light years away,” Tusk told reporters. “However, there are various indirect mechanisms, for example, the possibility of using these funds as a financial lever, that is, as loan guarantees,” he added.

Tusk said the difference in the EU’s and the US’s positions on the potential confiscation of Russian assets is “absolutely obvious”. The PM added that Washington has repeatedly urged the bloc to be cautious on this matter, arguing that it would only complicate or completely derail the negotiation efforts of the Trump administration.

“The Americans say: leave these Russian assets alone, because it’s hard to sit down at the negotiating table with Putin and say, ‘Let’s make a compromise, but we’re taking your money.’ This is the American argument,” he said.

Last week, the EU invoked its rarely used emergency powers to bypass potential vetoes by individual member countries and prevent the release of the assets. The “temporary” measure prohibits “any transfers of assets of the Central Bank of Russia immobilized in the EU back to Russia.”

Moscow has strongly condemned this move, reiterating its position that it considers any interference with its funds as “theft”, no matter how it is framed. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that accessing these funds would be illegal under international law regardless of any “pseudo-legal tricks Brussels employs to justify it”.