Estonia plans to start transferring frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said that the Estonian authorities intend to independently develop a mechanism for the transfer of frozen Russian financial assets to Kyiv for the restoration of Ukraine.

The European Union has already been tasked with drawing up a legal scheme to allow the use of the assets of the Russian Federation, although no concrete agreement has yet been reached.

,,We addressed the issue in the government and we decided that we will work on a legal structure to be able to use this money’’, Reinsalu said on January 4 of this year. for Postimees newspaper.

According to the minister, such a decision by Estonia would be a precedent in terms of international law.

Experts say that currently an amount between 350 and 500 billion euros is needed for the reconstruction of Ukraine, an amount that is increasing daily.

Meanwhile, on November 30, 2022, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, proposed the creation of a budget of Russian frozen assets to be allocated as aid to Ukraine. It noted that a total of 300 billion euros of reserves of the Central Bank of Russia and 19 billion euros of private funds of Russian businessmen are blocked.

At the same time, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, warned Brussels of retaliatory measures in case of confiscation of the Russian assets.

For its part, Germany has announced that it is already willing to use billions of euros from frozen assets to help restore Ukraine until legal issues are resolved and allies follow suit.