Yatsenyuk: $300 bln in Russian sovereign assets not enough to compensate for Ukraine's losses
Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum (KSF), former Prime Minister of Ukraine (2014-2016) Arseniy Yatsenyuk notes that the cost of Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction will significantly exceed the total amount of Russian assets currently frozen in Ukraine’s partner countries.
"In February, the World Bank estimated that $524 billion would be needed for recovery. I don’t accept these figures, but I know $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets won’t be enough to compensate Ukraine. The modern international legal system does not provide an answer as to how to recover this money from Russia," Yatsenyuk said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He noted that Ukraine’s state budget is heavily dependent on assistance from partners, even during the war, and he advocates using frozen Russian assets now.
"If we don’t have the reparation loan — I advocated confiscating Russian assets; now, they are talking about a reparation loan — we have money until February. Maybe not everyone knows this, but in recent years we have been spending what is not ours," Yatsenyuk said.