• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

The President: Frozen Russian assets have to be used to rebuild Ukraine

President of the Republic of Lithuania

February 09, 2023

President Gitanas Nausėda, together with Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of Estonia, Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš of Latvia and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland, addressed a letter to President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden, which holds the EU Presidency, on the issue of the use of the frozen Russian assets for reconstruction in Ukraine.

In the letter, the leaders stress Russia's accountability under international law for war atrocities and serious crimes, as well as the need to compensate for the damage caused by Russia's unprovoked and unjustified military aggression in Ukraine.

"At the EU-Ukraine Summit, we pledged to Ukraine that the EU will speed up its work towards using Russia's frozen public and private assets to rebuild Ukraine in accordance with EU and international law. To keep our promise to Ukraine, we have not only to reiterate our commitment, but to accelerate our work in the Council already now," the letter reads.

To date, Member States are known to have frozen over €300 billion of Russia's central bank reserves. In the letter, the leaders of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland point out that all the assets should be used to help Ukrainians suffering from the war and to rebuild their country.

The letter of the Lithuanian, Estonian, Latvian and Polish leaders stresses that the EU should lead global efforts to establish an international compensation mechanism for Ukraine and its reconstruction, and calls on the Swedish Presidency to accelerate work on this issue in the EU Council.

"The frozen assets have to be used to rebuild Ukraine as soon as possible, we cannot wait for the war to end and a peace agreement to be signed," the leaders of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland wrote in their letter.