The President's Office has revealed who are the biggest opponents in Europe to the confiscation of russian assets

This was announced on television by the deputy head of the President's Office, Iryna Mudra, according to a correspondent for Ukrinform.

"The biggest opponents of asset confiscation in Europe are Belgium, because they keep (funds – ed.) in Euroclear, France, Italy, and Germany. They fear that their companies' assets will be confiscated by russia. Our argument is that this does not deter russia in any way. They have confiscated and will continue to confiscate the assets of what they call unfriendly countries," Mudra said.

According to her, Euroclear, Clearstream and central banks are the financial institutions where russian money is mainly kept and which do not want to lose about $300 billion.

‘This is the economic part, but there is also a political part. And here the main problem is that, unfortunately, there is no political will among today's leaders to confiscate these assets. There are fears among large countries that this could set a precedent, etc., that this could also be done to them,’ she said.

Mudra stated that Ukraine, of course, does not need to transfer all 300 billion in one tranche.

"They can be kept in a fund located somewhere in Europe. This money can be managed properly so that Ukraine gets the most out of it. And this should be the source for implementing the decisions of the compensation commission, which we are also setting up," the deputy head of the Presidential Office said.

According to her, diplomatic talks are already underway to set up this commission.

"And the third component is a compensation fund. We are trying to obtain a decision on the confiscation of russian assets, their transfer to this fund and then (it is planned – ed.) to use (these funds – ed.) to implement the decisions of the compensation commission. They will not be enough. Today, it is about $300 billion," she said, confirming that we are talking about the money of the Central Bank of the russian federation.

Mudra noted that we are not talking about the private assets of russian individuals or legal entities - we are talking exclusively about the sovereign assets of the russian federation.

"And it will not be enough. Today, the amount of damage estimated by the World Bank together with the European Commission is about $586 billion. This is half of what we already need. And if we start counting the losses from 2014, it will be many times more. So I do not rule out that the amount will reach one trillion dollars," said the deputy head of the Presidential Office.

Speaking about where to get more money, because even if Ukraine gains access to these assets (300 billion – ed.), it will not be enough, she said that other options are being considered, such as the introduction of a special tax, for example, on the sale of oil and petroleum products from certain industries of the russian federation in which it trades with other countries, deductions from the russian federation's profits from these transactions to this fund, etc.

Source: Ukrinform