Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has argued that Russia will not lose the war in Ukraine, calling expectations of Moscow’s defeat “a fairy tale and a complete illusion.” He said that for this reason, frozen Russian assets will ultimately need to be returned to the Kremlin once the Russia’s war against Ukraine ends.
In an interview with La Libre published on December 3, De Wever also revealed that Russia has issued direct threats of “eternal retaliation” if Belgium supports the confiscation of its frozen assets.
The prime minister said Belgium is under “enormous pressure” regarding the debate over whether Russian sovereign funds should be seized and transferred to Ukraine. He continues to characterize such proposals as “theft.”
“Stealing the frozen assets of another country—its sovereign wealth funds—has never been done before. This is money belonging to the Central Bank of Russia. Even during the Second World War, German funds were not confiscated, only frozen,” he said.
De Wever added that, historically, a defeated state relinquishes assets voluntarily as part of a peace settlement. But he suggested this would not apply in the current war, arguing that Russia is not losing—and that a defeat for a nuclear-armed country could be destabilizing.
“Who genuinely believes that Russia is losing in Ukraine? Russia is not losing. That is a fairy tale, an illusion. And it is even undesirable for them to lose, so instability does not emerge in a nuclear power,” he said.
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He further claimed the Kremlin directly warned Brussels that any move to confiscate assets would lead to serious and lasting consequences.
“Who believes that Putin would calmly accept the confiscation of Russian assets? Moscow has made it clear that if that happens, Belgium—and I personally—will face the consequences ‘forever.’ That seems like quite a long time,” De Wever said.
Politico recently published an analysis explaining why Belgium has been so adamant about retaining control over Russia’s frozen assets. According to the outlet, Belgium’s resistance may have more practical motivations than fears of Russian “retaliation.” EU officials suspect that Belgium has been keeping the revenues generated from these assets for itself rather than transferring them to Ukraine.
Earlier, it was reported that The European Commission is urgently crafting a legal solution to address Belgium’s concerns over using frozen Russian assets to provide a loan to Ukraine.
ModoZ on December 4th, 2025 at 08:20 UTC »
I'll give some point of view on how this is viewed in Belgium.
Seizing the funds (in any way) would open Belgium to a liability of ~200 Billion €. This is a risk equal to roughly 40-50% of our GDP with a high probability of it coming to fruition (because Belgium has old treaties with Russia covering these kind of situations and even if you are morally right, it still is theft). There is no way our country could stomach such a blow.
Now this risk could be mitigated if other EU countries would agree to split the risk (by giving a sort of guarantee). The issue is that they don't want to do it. Why? Because the amount is too high and the risk is too great of having to pay for it. Now I'm no expert but if you refuse to split the risk of a decision taken by the EU between the 27 countries of the EU but want Belgium alone to carry that risk you are clearly being disingenuous about the matter.
The talk here in Belgium is now if we shouldn't just unblock the funds and allow Russia to retrieve them. It's a very bad idea from a war perspective, but honestly as a Belgian I'm starting to believe that there aren't many other options anymore.
313378008135 on December 4th, 2025 at 00:09 UTC »
"Moscow has made it clear that if that happens, Belgium—and I personally—will face the consequences ‘forever.’ "
ERM... So you have been directly, personally threatened and now you are implying strength of the side of those threatening you.
Got it.
Themetalin on December 3rd, 2025 at 23:00 UTC »
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has argued that Russia will not lose the war in Ukraine, calling expectations of Moscow’s defeat “a fairy tale and a complete illusion.” He said that for this reason, frozen Russian assets will ultimately need to be returned to the Kremlin once the Russia’s war against Ukraine ends.
“Stealing the frozen assets of another country—its sovereign wealth funds—has never been done before. This is money belonging to the Central Bank of Russia. Even during the Second World War, German funds were not confiscated, only frozen,” he said.
De Wever added that, historically, a defeated state relinquishes assets voluntarily as part of a peace settlement. But he suggested this would not apply in the current war, arguing that Russia is not losing—and that a defeat for a nuclear-armed country could be destabilizing.
“Who genuinely believes that Russia is losing in Ukraine? Russia is not losing. That is a fairy tale, an illusion. And it is even undesirable for them to lose, so instability does not emerge in a nuclear power,” he said.