Zelenskyy: Use of frozen Russian assets should be accelerated

15:18, 11.10.2023 1 min read

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy would like to speed up the use of frozen Russian assets.

"We discussed exactly how the frozen assets of the Russian Federation can be used now, without wasting time, in order to compensate for damage from aggression and missile attacks from the Russian Federation," he said on Wednesday in Brussels after negotiations with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

"It is important that Belgium became the first country to initiate this practice of using frozen Russian assets in support of the defense against Russian terror. The funds will be used for security," he said.

According to Zelenskyy, "we would really like to be able to use this money right now. Well, the first of these funds, a total of 1.7 billion, will be used next year."

In particular, he said, "today we talked about the introduction by Belgium of such a procedure as certification, which would not allow diamonds of Russian origin to enter world markets in circumvention of sanctions."