Ukraine says almost $60 mln of Russian assets have entered the state budget

Almost $60m of Russian assets have been collected from the Ukrainian budget, the country's Justice Ministry said on 2 January.

It is specified that 2.5bn hryvnyas (more than $59.4m) of Russian assets were recovered from the Ukrainian state budget in 2024, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Earlier, on November 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (term of office expired in May 2024) said that Russian assets are Ukrainian money.

In October, the Council of the European Union (EU) approved a €35 billion loan to Ukraine with repayment from frozen Russian assets. It was specified that it is the EU's contribution to the G7 loan of up to €45bn. The loan will have a maximum repayment period of 45 years.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the loan to Ukraine at the expense of Russia's frozen assets a new fraudulent scheme of Brussels to embezzle other people's property. She emphasized that Moscow 's decisive response to what is happening will not be long in coming.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Kiev against the backdrop of Russia's special operation to protect Donbass, which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, after the situation in the region worsened due to shelling by the Ukrainian military. The EU soon approved the decision to freeze the assets of the Russian Central Bank.