Send frozen Russian cash to Kyiv, says Rishi Sunak

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he supports plans to send Ukraine hundreds of billions of pounds from frozen Russian assets as the West marked the second anniversary of the invasion.

This comes after Ukraine previously called for frozen Russian assets to be used to rebuild the country’s war-ravaged economy after a report showed the cost of reconstruction increasing to almost $500bn (£394bn).

In an article for The Sunday Times, Rishi Sunak said he wanted the UK to be “bolder with our military support — providing Ukraine with more long-range weapons, more drones, and more munitions”.

Mr Sunak added: “We must be bolder in hitting the Russian war economy … And we must be bolder in seizing the hundreds of billions of frozen Russian assets.”

The Foreign Office officials have held meetings to ­discuss the possible legal avenues available to seize Russian central bank reserves, which have been immobilised in the West since February 2022.

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This follows a swathe of 50 additional sanctions imposed by the UK that targeted munitions manufacturers, electronics companies, and diamond and oil traders on Moscow.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden on Friday also issued a series of sanctions against Russia, targeting more than 500 people and entities to mark the second anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and retaliate for Alexei Navalny’s death.

Mr Biden said the measures were to ensure Mr Putin “pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home.”

According to Reuters, the sanctions targeted Russia’s Mir payment system, financial institutions and its military industrial base, sanctions evasions and future energy production. They also hit prison officials the US says are linked to Mr Navalny’s death.

However, a proposed funding package worth approximately $50bn (£39bn) for Ukraine was blocked by the US Senate earlier this month. Mr Sunak urged the United States to continue to support Kyiv after the Republicans blocked Mr Biden’s emergency bill.

send frozen russian cash to kyiv, says rishi sunak

US President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky hold a joint press conference last December. (Photo: Mandel NGAN / AFP)

“We should never underestimate what America has done for Ukraine and for Euro-Atlantic security. I urge them to continue that support, and I am confident they will.

“Because we know that if Putin wins in Ukraine, the very basis of the rules-based order will have been challenged to its core. That’s why Putin’s Russia continues to pose the greatest threat to global security we face today.

On the two years anniversary of Putin’s invasion, the Ukrainian economy has shrunk by more than 25 per cent, according to a joint assessment by the World Bank, Ukraine’s government, the European Commission and the UN.

Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said: “The needs or reconstruction have continued to grow over the past year. The main resource for Ukraine’s recovery should be the confiscation of Russian assets frozen in the west. We need to start this process already this year.”

To show their continued support for Ukraine, a number of Western leaders descended on Kyiv over the weekend, including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

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