Johnson announces GBP 15 bln of frozen Russian assets in UK
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that about GBP 15 billion of Russian assets were frozen in London, but the current British government did not use this resource to support Ukraine.
"I am afraid Putin will be quietly pleased with the results of the European Council. He has effectively intimidated the EU – and the UK – into dropping an excellent plan to fund Ukraine. The reparations loan would have liberated huge sums from Putin’s frozen assets in a way that was morally and legally watertight. It would have given Ukrainians the ability to defend themselves for years to come," he said on the X social network.
Johnson said Britain had about GBP 15 billion of Russian assets in London. "And yet [Prime Minister Keir] Starmer has said nothing. We could have led the campaign. We have sat on the sidelines. It is not too late for us to act," the British politician believes.
According to him, at the moment the EU loan plan of EUR 90 billion is better than nothing, but still significantly inferior to it. "Chancellor Merz of Germany and Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission deserve congratulations for their leadership, and their willingness to stand up to Putin. It is a great shame that they were ultimately thwarted by other EU countries including, shamefully, some countries who were actually invaded by Russia in the last century," he said.