Discussions on the use of frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine are still ongoing. A collective decision will be announced at the G7 summit, says Denys Maliuska, Minister of Justice of Ukraine.
"The US has taken the first important step. They have decided to authorize the US administration to confiscate Russian assets. In full, not in full, interest, income from them - it doesn't matter. The right was granted. The United States has shown that it is legal," the minister said.
He noted that the United States is trying to bring the rest of the countries to follow this strategy, but this strategy is not fully successful, and there is an ongoing discussion about what to do with the proceeds of Russian assets.
"There are many options. Discussions are ongoing. But the key thing is that it should be done collectively. A collective decision will be announced in Italy (at the G7 summit - ed.). I think we will understand in early June what will happen to the assets," Maliuska added.
Development scenarios
The Minister of Justice said that under the super-optimistic scenario, the currently frozen Russian assets will be confiscated.
In a neutral scenario, Maliuska said, the revenues will be withdrawn for a certain loan, so that such revenues accrued for 10 years in advance will be paid in one tranche now.
"In the pessimistic scenario, it is only the current deduction of income accrued from Russian assets. This is a maximum of 5 billion euros per year. But it may be less. This is a pessimistic scenario. Our task is to ask our partners for the most radical solution," he added.
Frozen assets of the Russian Federation
Since the beginning of the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western countries have frozen more than $300 billion in Russian assets.
They have not yet been able to confiscate them due to legal and reputational risks. However, the US and G7 countries are considering several options. RBC-Ukraine reported that the US is considering several options for confiscating Russia's frozen assets.
We also reported that the G7 countries plan to discuss the US idea of confiscating the proceeds of Russian assets in favor of Ukraine before the June summit.
