Europe must act now to seize Russian assets to aid Ukraine.

Using frozen Russian assets to strengthen Ukraine’s economy and defense is a legitimate and necessary step, but Europe needs to act immediately to seize them, says French Hill, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. He believes the European Council should agree to seize about €258B of frozen Russian assets in Europe as an initial compensation for the damage caused to Ukraine. The congressman added that extraordinary revenues from frozen Russian assets are already flowing to Ukraine.

He noted that to compensate Ukraine for its losses, its allies need to take three immediate steps:

1. Allocate Russian assets to net escrow accounts.
2. Begin collaborating with all involved countries to establish an international trust fund for Ukraine.
3. Transfer most of the frozen Russian assets to Ukraine to address its urgent security and financial needs.

Hill assured that the US should also take appropriate measures. He urged U.S. President Donald Trump to reverse the policy of caution to send a strong signal to Putin and support Ukraine from a position of strength, including transferring $5B of the Russian Central Bank’s reserves frozen in the U.S. to Kyiv.