FM Kuleba expects decision on use of frozen Russian assets to be endorsed in 2024

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba during a joint press conference with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“Ukraine, together with partners, will make a decision on the use of the frozen Russian assets, i.e. this decision will be endorsed in 2024. I have no doubt in this regard, knowing the dynamics of these discussions,” Kuleba said.

In his words, there are certain challenges with regard to making this decision and, perhaps, this process will be carried out in stages, for example as a tax on profits from the frozen Russian assets, followed by the profits and eventually the assets themselves.

“But, that’s a fact that we are going this way, the first results have already been achieved, and this decision will be made in 2024,” Kuleba stressed.

The head of Ukrainian diplomacy noted that ideally the Ukrainian side would like to see all Russian assets loaded onto a Russian plane, which was seized in Canada, and sent to Ukraine during 2024.

“But, jokes aside, we hope that Canada will complete all court and legal procedures, and this plane will become an important precedent, a symbol of transferring not a financial but physical Russian asset to Ukraine,” Kuleba stressed.

A reminder that, on January 29, 2024, Ambassadors of the European Union endorsed a proposal to use the profits from the frozen Russian assets in support of Ukraine.

In June 2023, during a press conference in Kyiv, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau announced that Canada had seized the An-124 cargo aircraft owned by Russia’s company Volga-Dnepr, which was staying in Toronto, and had started the process of transferring it to Ukraine.

Photo: Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry