OREANDA-NEWS  The European Commission has found a way to help restore Ukraine at the expense of Russia's funds — blocked assets of the Central Bank and money of Russian businessmen. In a short time, it is proposed to create a structure for managing these assets and investing them, follows from the statements of the head of the EC Ursula von der Leyen.

"The damage to Ukraine is estimated at 600 billion euros. Russia and its oligarchs must compensate for the damage to Ukraine and cover the costs of rebuilding the country. And we have ways to make Russia pay," the report says. The government blocked a total of about 320 billion euros in total reserves of the Russian Central Bank and funds of Russian oligarchs.

According to information from open sources, the European Commission plans to work on an international agreement that will allow the idea to be implemented. "Together we will find legal ways to do this," the publication says.

This is not the first time the European Commission has spoken about its goal of confiscating, not just freezing, Russian assets. In October, von der Leyen noted that there is no necessary legal basis for this yet. The Russian government, in turn, claims the theoretical possibility of exchanging assets frozen in the European Union and Russia for various reasons, but considers the situation difficult.