The €3B in profits collected from frozen Russian assets is “almost nothing” compared to the amount that will be necessary to win the war against Russia, said Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Malyuska.
“We need hundreds of billions to win the war,” Malyuska said during a meeting of justice ministers of the G7 countries in Venice.
However, he considers the recently approved plan to use the proceeds from frozen Russian assets in Europe to purchase weapons for Ukraine “a good first step.”
“The Ukrainian government would really like to receive full confiscation and really believes that it is legal, and this is the only approach to end the war,” he added.
For his part, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller noted that the US is closely cooperating with European countries regarding the direction of the Russian frozen assets in Ukraine’s favor.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, EU countries have frozen about €200B in Russian assets. However, the West has refused to confiscate these assets over fears that it could violate international law and destabilize global financial markets.