Zelensky aide says Ukraine looking for USD1 trn from Russia
(MENAFN) In a recent national telethon, Oleg Ustenko, the top economic adviser to Ukrainian President Zelensky, announced Ukraine's ambitious pursuit of USD1 trillion in reparations from Russia for the damages incurred during the ongoing military conflict. Ustenko emphasized that the frozen assets of Russia, estimated at USD300-350 billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves, would fall significantly short of covering the immense losses suffered by Ukraine.
According to estimates from Kiev, the direct losses amount to a staggering USD750 billion, with the inclusion of indirect losses potentially pushing the figure to the unprecedented sum of USD1 trillion. This assertion goes beyond the mid-2022 estimate by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, who initially stated that USD750 billion would be required for Ukraine's restoration, emphasizing the importance of using confiscated assets belonging to Russia and Russian oligarchs as a primary funding source.
President Zelensky later revised the reparations estimate to a range of USD600-USD800 billion.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, in late 2023, solidified the nation's stance, ruling out the possibility of a peace deal with Russia unless substantial reparations were secured for the damages caused by the conflict.
Ukraine, alongside its Western allies, has long deliberated on ways to leverage Russian assets blocked abroad to facilitate the nation's recovery. A recent development saw European Union member states agreeing on January 30 to transfer income generated by Russia's frozen central bank reserves to Kiev, but as of now, they have refrained from tapping into the assets directly.
As the reparations demand reaches unprecedented heights, it adds another layer of complexity to the geopolitical and economic dynamics of the ongoing conflict, prompting discussions about the feasibility and implications of such an astronomical financial claim in the context of the broader international response to the crisis.
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