Ukraine urges West to seize Russian assets to pay for rebuilding

Ukraine called on western allies to confiscate frozen Russians assets and redirect the money to fund the rebuilding of the country as Kyiv prepares to take its case for compensation from Moscow to the United Nations.

It will ask the UN general assembly meeting in September to establish a binding international mechanism to force Russia to pay for the destruction caused by its invasion, Iryna Mudra, a deputy justice minister in Ukraine, told The Times.

Kyiv made its proposal as western leaders gathered in Switzerland to discuss a “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine, similar to the American scheme that funded European reconstruction after the Second World War. Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano that Russia’s invasion had caused damage that