The United States and the European Union are looking for legal options to use $300 billion in frozen Russian assets for Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken informed about this.
According to him, most of this money is now in the EU, not in the US.
"So weʼre looking at what legal authority we can have to actually use these assets for Ukraine. My view is that you broke it — you paid for it. And so the Russians, having broken it, have to pay for it," Blinken noted.
And he added that one of the ways to retaliate for the war is to use frozen Russian assets.
- On February 24, 2023, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated that Ukraine claims $300-500 billion of frozen Russian assets.
- In June, "Bloomberg", citing the relevant document, wrote that the European Union cannot legally confiscate frozen Russian assets in full, instead focusing on their temporary use. Later, the Estonian government approved the principles of using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine. Estonia became the first European country to develop such a legal solution. Then Estonia announced that they wanted to legalize the confiscation of Russian assets in favor of Ukraine.
- On September 7, the United States informed that for the first time it would transfer the confiscated assets of Russian oligarchs to Ukraine. We are talking about $5.4 million, which will go to support Ukrainian veterans.
- At the end of September, the USA froze Russian assets worth $8 billion. The main part of these funds is in the EU and Japan.
- Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the EU has frozen the assets of the Russian Central Bank for more than €200 billion. A significant part of these funds is kept in the Euroclear depository and has already brought almost €750 million in profit in the first quarter of 2023. In addition, the EU has frozen €24.1 billion in assets belonging to Russians and Russian companies under sanctions.