Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has asked the Prosecutor General's Office and the judicial system to return the $1.4 billion seized by the government from ex-president Viktor Yanukovych and people close to him to the state budget.

"If the funds go back into the budget, from which they were stolen, it will help the government increase the social standards for citizens and provide more funding for the army and corruption prevention," Yatseniuk told a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday, according to the government press service.

Yatseniuk recalled that the Cabinet has confiscated $1.4 billion belonging to Yanukovych and people close to him.

The prime minister has asked the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office "to reclassify these funds from the 'arrested' category to 'confiscated' category."