Ukraine’s allies will form a coalition to supply long-range artillery to Kiev to defend against a Russian invasion and use proceeds from frozen Russian assets to buy weapons for Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, Reuters and AFP reported.

As part of the Ramstein format, the contact group of Ukraine’s defense allies, “we are creating a new long-range artillery coalition,” the German leader said at a press conference alongside Emmanuel Macron and Donald Tusk.

“It is clear that we support Ukraine, and it is also clear that we ourselves are not at war with Russia,” Scholz said on Friday at a Berlin meeting of the so-called Weimar Triangle, which includes France, Germany and Poland.

“Our common goal is and remains to ensure that Ukraine can effectively defend itself against Russian invasion,” he added. “Our support will not diminish.”

Ukraine constantly asked its allies for long-range missiles, especially Taurus, which Germany refused to provide.

The delivery of cruise missiles such as the Taurus is “a line I do not want to cross as chancellor”.said Scholz on Wednesday, who explained the main argument for such a refusal.

On March 4, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal appealed to the Western countries with a request to transfer to Kyiv about 300 billion euros of Russian assets frozen due to sanctions.

The call came at a time when Ukraine, which is experiencing difficulties at the front in the face of the Russian offensive, is worried about the reduction of military and financial aid from the West in the context of discord in the US and the EU.

Following sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine, the EU and the G7 blocked Russia’s access to around 300 billion euros of its foreign exchange reserves or gold, a move Moscow describes as “theft”. The EU froze the assets of the Russian Central Bank from this amount in the amount of about 200 billion euros, with most of this amount placed in Belgium and managed by the clearing company Euroclear.

The option of confiscating these assets and transferring them to Ukraine, which many Western politicians want, at least for the time being, looks difficult, as there are numerous obstacles of a legal, geopolitical and financial nature, such as the risk of disruption of international financial markets and a weakening of the euro, plus Moscow has threatened “painful” measures, if such an idea will be implemented.

However, the EU is preparing to transfer revenues from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. Thus, Belgium expects to collect about 1.7 billion euros for Ukraine this year.

“This is a small amount compared to the 200 billion euros (of Russian assets) that are blocked in accounts in Belgium,” the Ukrainian prime minister complained.