Ursula von der Leyen attends a press conference after her re-election for a second term as President of the European Commission, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, July 18, 2024.- Reuters
The European Union will transfer 1.5 billion euros in proceeds from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on social media platform X on Friday.
”Today we transfer 1.5 billion euros in proceeds from immobilised Russian assets to the defence and reconstruction of Ukraine. There is no better symbol or use for the Kremlin’s money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live,” she said.
Earlier this week, the US Treasury Department ordered the nation’s banking industry to start disclosing its holdings of Russian assets on Tuesday, to eventually seize those billions of dollars in assets and sell them to aid the devastated Ukrainian economy.
The disclosure is required under a new law passed by Congress earlier this year known as the REPO Act, which gives the U.S. government the authority to seize Russian state assets held by U.S. banks, to eventually sell them and give those funds to Ukraine. While the vast bulk of Russian assets are held in Europe, it is estimated that the U.S. banking system holds as much as $6 billion in Russian assets in trust.
Banks will need to report Russian assets on their books no later than Aug. 2 to the Office of Foreign Assets Control. If a bank discovers any new Russian assets on their books after the deadline, those assets need to be reported within 10 days, the Treasury Department said.
Russia’s war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has killed tens of thousands but has also caused significant devastation to Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure. The World Bank estimated in February that Ukraine will need $486 billion for recovery and reconstruction, a figure that has only risen as the war has continued.
The U.S., Canada, France, Germany Italy, the U.K. and Japan — commonly known as the G7 — froze roughly $300 billion worth of Russian assets at the start of the war. These assets included hard currency, as well as gold and investments in publicly and privately-held companies. But there has been little conversation until this year about what to do with those frozen assets, until the idea of forfeiture and liquidation was included in the REPO Act.
With inputs from agencies.
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