As part of developing a new mechanism to finance Ukraine with frozen russian assets, we are negotiating with Belgium, where the lion's share of these assets are held.Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandr Kava spoke during an extraordinary session on the situation in Ukraine's energy sector and economy of the Kyiv Security Forum, organized by Arseniy Yatsenyuk "Open Ukraine" Foundation.

"We are currently working on creating a new mechanism to finance Ukraine with the help of frozen russian assets. First of all, this is a question for the EU. They are discussing Belgium, which owns the lion's share of frozen russian assets. We need the Belgian government to support this decision. We are also negotiating with other EU countries," he said.

Oleksandr Kava also mentioned that the U.S. position on providing financial assistance to Ukraine has changed. However, he added that "our European and G7 partners remain optimistic and are trying to help us solve our problems as much as possible".

The Deputy Minister noted that Ukraine has reached a compromise with the European Investment Bank on several programs.

"These programs support both large state-owned and municipal sectors of the economy. In addition to the war in the East, we are engaged in an economic war. How well the Ukrainian economy and Ukrainian cities function depends on how well we can finance our share of state budget expenditures. It's no secret that half of the state budget expenditures are financed by taxes and fees, which go toward the security and defense sector. The other half is financed by loans and grants from our partners. Therefore, we should not forget about regions that have received a large number of IDPs. These cities are functioning and producing goods, including military supplies, while ensuring tax payments," he explained.