Russia must pay: Latvia urges use of frozen assets to support Ukraine
Photo: Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs (Getty Images)
According to Kulbergs, Russia should start paying for the consequences of its attacks, and Europe should therefore agree to use frozen Russian assets.
He stressed that the bill should be covered not by EU citizens’ money, but by Russia’s frozen assets, as Swedish representatives had also pointed out during the discussions.
Kulbergs added that this involves around €200 billion that, in his view, could be used to cover the bill.
The Latvian prime minister stressed that the bill involves significant sums, questioning why EU citizens should have to cover the entire cost.
In his view, using frozen Russian assets would help reduce the burden on European countries.
Kulbergs concluded that the cost of the war is extremely high, and that Europe should remove this burden from its own shoulders, which he said could be done easily.
Earlier, Belgium said it was open to using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine, but insisted that EU countries first agree on a mechanism for distributing the legal and financial risks.
Brussels fears that if Belgium were required to return more than €200 billion to Russia, it would be unable to cover such costs on its own. At the same time, the country does not object to using these funds to support Ukraine.
