Russia’s central bank has said it is seeking $230bn (£170bn) in damages from Euroclear, as the Kremlin fired a warning shot against the use of Russian frozen assets to aid Ukraine.

The Russian central bank said on Monday that it was claiming 18 trillion roubles, according to local state media reports about the case launched last week.

EU leaders will decide later this week whether to use€210bn in Russian frozen assets to provide Ukraine with a loan to fund its defence and keep the economy afloat. Most of the assets, €185bn (£162bn), are held at the Euroclear central securities depository in Brussels, which is the keeper of most of the Kremlin’s immobilised money.

EU officials have argued that the plan is legally sound because Russia remains the owner of its sovereign wealth, which was frozen in European jurisdictions days after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Moscow, however, said that using the assets is theft and has threatened to seize European private investors’ holdings in Russia. Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, who has assumed a key role in peace talks, wrote on X that Russia “will win in court” and “get [the assets] back”, adding that the EU, the euro currency and Euroclear “will suffer’” from the plan.

In an apparent attempt to draw a wedge between Europe and the US, Dmitriev described the assets plan as “a vicious attack on property rights and the international reserves system created by the United States”.

Euroclear declined to comment. It has previously said it is facing more than 100 lawsuits in Russia.

While judges in EU countries will not recognise Russian court judgments, analysts expect Russia to seek enforcement in countries with ties to Moscow. “The Bank of Russia may attempt to enforce a Russian court’s decision against Euroclear in China, Hong Kong, the UAE, Kazakhstan and other friendly jurisdictions, if such assets can be identified,” Gleb Boyko from the NSP law firm told Reuters.

EU officials say they are working on measures to discourage other countries from aiding any Russian legal action against Europeans, as well as safeguards to protect EU member states with assets in Russia from “illegal expropriation”.

Under the complex scheme, the EU would provide an initial €90bn loan for Ukraine using the cash at Euroclear, but Russia’s claim on the funds would remain untouched. Kyiv would only repay the money if and when Russia agreed to pay reparations for the immense destruction inflicted during nearly four years of full-scale war.

Belgium, backed by Italy, Bulgaria and Malta, has asked the EU to look seriously at an alternative way of funding Ukraine: common EU borrowing to fund a loan secured against using unallocated funds in the EU budget.

That move requires unanimity among the 27 member states, and Hungary’s Kremlin-friendly government has already signalled its opposition.

Speaking on Monday, the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the reparations loan was “the most credible option” for funding Ukraine. “The reparations loan is based on the Russian frozen assets, that means it doesn’t come from our taxpayers’ money, which is also important,” she said. “It also sends a clear signal that if you do all this damage to another country, you have to pay for the reparations.”