Janet Yellen says G7 urgently needs to find a way to transfer russian assets to Ukraine

US treasury secretary Janet Yellen said it was urgent for G7 countries to jointly seize profits from frozen russian assets and redirect them to Ukraine.

Calls have been mounting in the US and Europe to set up a fund for Ukraine using billions of dollars in bank accounts, investments and other assets frozen by the west over russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion.

“It is necessary and urgent for our coalition to find a way to unlock the value of these immobilised assets to support Ukraine’s continued resistance and long-term reconstruction,” Yellen told journalists in São Paulo, Brazil, where she will attend a meeting of G20 finance ministers.

Yellen continued: "There is a strong international law, economic, and moral case for moving forward. This would be a decisive response to russia’s unprecedented threat to global stability".

It would make clear that russia cannot win by prolonging the war and would incentivise it to come to the table to negotiate a just peace with Ukraine.

Source: The Guardian