Ukraine has 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.
In their third assessment of the likely price tag for recovery and reconstruction after Russia’s invasion two years ago, the World Bank, Ukraine’s government, the European Commission and the UN said the war had caused the economy to shrink by more than 25% and had been a “dramatic setback” to Ukraine’s development.
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.”
An estimated $300bn of Russian assets have been frozen since the war started in February 2022.
There is not going to be an infallible higher power coming down and telling us what to do. If we as a collective think Russian assets in EU hands should be used for this purpose, then that is what will happen. It is the EU that will ultimately decide if this is the right course. It looks like the current prevailing opinion is that the money should be used for this, as soon as possible. It is scary to do something that has not been tried before. Let’s hope for the suffering people of Ukraine, our elected officials get to work sooner, rather than later.