EC president has no doubts about using windfall profits from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine in near future

BRUSSELS. April 18 (Interfax) - All EU leaders are determined to use the windfall profits from frozen Russian assets for military aid to Ukraine based on the European Commission (EC)'s proposal, EC President Ursula von der Leyen said.

"And if we work at the pace we are working right now, the first payments from this windfall payments that we estimate in the first year at around 2.5-3 billion euros a year might be accessible and can be invested in supporting Ukraine in the military needs it has," von der Leyen said at a press conference in Brussels following the extraordinary EU summit on Thursday.

She was asked about European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde's earlier statement that proposals to use frozen Russian assets have legal risks.

Von der Leyen refrained from commenting on this statement.

"I have seen four different schemes or proposals to circumvent what many other jurists or lawyers - including in some administrations in this country - regard as a very serious legal obstacle that can be construed as a violation of the legal international order," Lagarde was quoted by the Financial Times as saying earlier in Washington.

"Moving from freezing the assets, to confiscating them, to disposing of them is something that needs to be looked at very carefully," because this could entail "breaking the international order that you want to protect; that you would want Russia to respect," she said.