WASHINGTON, December 17. /TASS/. The United States has notified European countries that it would like to use frozen Russian assets as part of a settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, The Washington Post newspaper reported, citing sources.

"The Europeans had received clear signals that the U.S. administration wants to use the assets in a settlement, raising the specter of a clash with Europe’s leaders," the newspaper notes. According to the publication, after Washington proposed its 28-point plan for settling the Ukrainian crisis in November, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and other European leaders "have faced pressure from US officials."

In late November, Bloomberg reported, citing European officials, that a clause on allocating about $100 billion in frozen Russian assets to the Ukraine Recovery Fund has been removed from the latest version of the US peace plan. The original proposal stipulated that the US would receive 50% of the profits from these assets, with unused frozen funds to be directed to a Russian-American investment fund.

On December 12, the Council of the European Union adopted a decision to permanently freeze Russia’s sovereign assets. The European Commission (EC) hopes to secure a decision from EU countries at the December 18-19 summit to expropriate 210 billion euros in Russian assets, 185 billion of which are blocked on the Euroclear platform in Belgium, to finance Kiev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the confiscation of Russian assets, currently being discussed in Europe, would constitute an act of theft. As Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuychenko told TASS, the country’s leadership has already been presented with options for responding to the possible seizure of Russian assets by Western countries.