UK explores using frozen russian assets to fund Ukraine defence

The government has asked the Bank of England to look at options for using russian sovereign assets to fund Ukraine's war effort, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has told.

Speaking at the IMF's annual conference in Marrakech, Mr Hunt told the BBC that finance ministers from some of the world's largest economies - the G7 - had discussed "whether russian sovereign assets could be used to fund Ukraine's defence".

The G7 said it would explore how to tax profits on seized russian assets to support Ukraine "in compliance with applicable laws".

In September, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Mr Hunt signalled support for a European Union plan for a windfall tax on profits generated by frozen russian assets.

Earlier in the year, the US had looked at using the assets themselves to help pay for Ukraine's defence, but decided that it would not be legal to do so.

Mr Hunt said: "Britain will always act within international law, but the G7 have asked central banks to look at what might be possible because we are absolutely clear this is an illegal war, this war is against international law."

Source: BBC