Washington and its partners are considering additional sanctions if the parties do not observe a ceasefire, with political and technical negotiations between Europe and the U.S. intensifying since last week, Reuters' source said.
The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Moscow and Washington discuss the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
"This is a historic decision, as weapons for Ukraine will be purchased at the expense of the proceeds from frozen Russian assets through the European Peace Fund," Denys Shmyhal said.
A view of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation headquarters in Moscow, Russia on July 21, 2023. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A letter signed by international legal experts argues that the seizure of frozen Russian central bank assets to aid Ukraine would be lawful given Russia's "ongoing breach of the most fundamental rules of international law," Bloomberg reported on Feb. 21.
Western countries and other partners immobilized around $300 billion of the Russian Central Bank's assets at the start of the full-scale invasion. According to the World Bank, the estimated cost of Ukraine's post-war recovery and reconstruction has risen to $486 billion.
Washington, Brussels, and Kyiv have discussedlegal ways of channeling these funds to aid Ukraine's reconstruction efforts but have yet to come to a definitive conclusion.
The letter, which was circulated to Group of 7 (G7) capitals and obtained by Bloomberg, was signed by 10 legal experts from the U.S., the U.K., Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands.
G7 nations have pledged that Russian assets held in their jurisdictions would remain frozen until Moscow pays war reparations to Ukraine.
In the face of Russia's "blatant violation" of the post-Second World War legal order, international law permits a response of "lawful countermeasures" to persuade the offending country "to cease its unlawful conduct," the experts said.
The assets could therefore be transferred to help Ukraine "as compensation for the damage that has resulted directly from Russia's unlawful conduct."
"The total amount of compensation would not exceed the amount owed by Russia for the damage it has caused," the experts said. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in January that the total amount of frozen Russian assets could fund more than 80% of Ukraine's recovery.
"We recommend that the compensation be provided through an international mechanism, to which the States concerned would transfer the Russian State assets currently under their jurisdiction."
"Their jurisdiction may extend, depending on the circumstances, to offshore currency holdings intermediated through their country's correspondent banks," the letter said.
The experts specified that only Russian State assets would be impacted, and "no new measures would be imposed on assets that are genuinely privately owned."
The EU has been hesitant to confiscate Russian assets outright, fearing legal pitfalls and possible retribution by Russia, but has made steps to target the profits generated by frozen Russian central bank assets.
The European Council agreed on Feb. 12 to a set of new measures targeting these profits, possibly paving the way for the revenue to be eventually redirected to Ukraine.
Martin Fornusek
