Ukraine hopes to receive all Russia's immobilized assets – Stefanishyna
Ukraine is working to receive the entire "body" of immobilized Russian assets, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna, who is also the Minister of Justice of Ukraine, has said.
"This is one of the policies which the Justice Ministry under my leadership moved forward after we finalized the formation of arrangements to mobilize EUR 50 billion in interest from frozen assets. Just last week, working in Brussels, I discussed the use of the very 'body' of the assets. We are talking, in our opinion, not only about freezing the assets of the Russian Central Bank, it can be the entire 'body' of frozen assets in the conditions of sanctions policy," she said during the forum "Law and justice: Strengthening cooperation in war" on Monday.
Stefanishyna noted that a clear legal position on this issue has already been formed. The Ministry of Justice also considers successful the experience of recovery of sanctioned assets in Ukraine to the income of the Ukrainian state.
"There is such a legal format is in Estonia. There is such a legal format in Canada, in Latvia, and we are working with these countries," the Deputy Prime Minister said.
She also recalled the recent U.S. decision on the recovery of Russian assets and expressed hope that U.S. President Joseph Biden, even before the end of his term, will make the first step to implement this initiative.
"The Justice Ministry will consistently promote the legal position on the use of Russian assets until this is implemented. Our position is clear, and it has been supported in political circles in Brussels," Stefanishyna said.
Earlier, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the decision to allocate $20 billion to Ukraine as part of the G7 initiative to allocate $50 billion to the country from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets.