BRUSSELS — The
EU has frozen Russian assets
worth around 17 billion euros since the start of the war in Ukraine, EU Justice
Commissioner Didier Reynders said in an interview published Saturday.
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The figure has risen from the roughly 13.8 billion
euros “from oligarchs and other entities” that Reynders announced in July that
the EU had frozen, mainly in five countries.
Ukrainian officials are demanding that the funds be
used to rebuild their country after the war.
The total of frozen assets was 14.5 billion euros by
mid-September, when the commissioner criticized the lack of efforts from
several member states, including Hungary.
In the interview, Reynders said of the frozen assets
that “if it is criminal money confiscated by the EU”, it could “be transferred
to a compensation fund for Ukraine”.
“This amount is far from being sufficient to finance
reconstruction,” he added.
“So far, the assets of 90 people have been frozen,
more than 17 billion euros in seven member states, including 2.2 billion euros
in Germany,” he told German media group Funke, including the Westdeutsche
Allgemeine Zeitung daily.
The sums totaling 17.5 billion euros were chiefly
frozen by Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Italy, a
spokeswoman for the European Commission told AFP, without giving further
details.
Reynders noted that Western sanctions have also led
to the “freezing of 300 billion euros” of Central Bank of Russia foreign
exchange reserves around the world, saying this could be used as a guarantee.
“From my point of view, it is at least possible to
keep these 300 billion euros as a guarantee until Russia voluntarily
participates in the reconstruction of Ukraine,” he said.
Since Russia’s
annexation of Crimea in 2014, 1,236 people including Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as well as oligarchs including Roman
Abramovich, have been subject to asset freezes and bans from entering the EU.
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