Belgium will send EUR 1.7 billion in taxes from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, the Belgian publication VRT said.

"Frozen Russian assets held by securities giant Euroclear in Belgium generated EUR 1.7 billion in tax revenue for Belgium last year. That's according to Euroclear's annual figures. The Belgian government will use the cash to provide aid to Ukraine. The total amount of Russian assets blocked at Euroclear amounts to some EUR 183 billion," the Belgian publication VRT said.

It is noted that the securities company Euroclear is an influential player in the global financial market. At the same time, only about 12% of the shares of this company belong to the Federal Government of Belgium, the rest belong to other municipal governments of the country and banks.

The company provided financial services to Russian companies and the government, but all transactions were frozen after Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine and was hit with international sanctions in response to the aggression. Russian assets, including cash, shares and loans, were frozen and are currently inaccessible to Russian entities.

Interest from these Russian billions is transferred to a special account at Euroclear and is used to replenish European aid funds intended for Ukraine.

As reported, the leaders of the G7 countries agreed on a mechanism to allocate $50 billion in aid to Ukraine through the use of frozen Russian assets.

According to this plan, the EU and the United States will each take on about $20 billion, and the remaining $10 billion will be divided between the UK, Japan and Canada. In particular, Canada will provide Ukraine with CAD 5 billion ($3.7 billion) as part of the financial support of the G7 countries.