Ukraine hopes to be able to reach agreement on using frozen Russian assets for its own production

Ukraine hopes to be able to reach an agreement on using frozen Russian assets for its own production and for the European defense package, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated.

"Also, regarding frozen assets, we certainly said that we would very much like to, and we hope, I believe, that we will ultimately be able to reach an agreement and push this issue forward so that Russian assets can be used specifically for the European defense package, for Ukrainian production, and for the majority of our air defense systems from the USA," Zelenskyy said during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.

In addition, the head of the Ukrainian state noted that the SAFE program could be used for co-production, and the possibility of using Rafale aircraft in this program is being considered.

"We're exploring the possibility that, if we're technically ready, we could eventually co-produce these components. This is very important to us, just like co-producing drones, and we want to and will use the SAFE program in this direction," he noted.