President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed the opinion that EU businesses can use frozen Russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
The head of the Ukrainian state stated this in an interview with the Italian TV channel RaiNews24, Ukrinform reports with reference to the President’s Office.
“The European Union can take serious steps today regarding all Russian frozen assets. This is an important step. It will help not only Ukraine. I will give you an example of reconstruction. We will hold a Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome, it will be held this year, in July. And we thank you for organizing it. But what is important? All European businesses that can come and rebuild Ukraine after the war, they can also make money. Not only can they help Ukraine rebuild — we are grateful for help — but they can take this frozen money and rebuild Ukraine. And this is a ‘win-win’. This is not only important in the context of support, but also from a pragmatic point of view – for business, for your people, for specialists,” he said.
Zelensky clarified that, in particular, it is important for Ukraine to attract specialists in the field of historical and cultural heritage from European countries to rebuild churches destroyed by Russian strikes.
At the same time, the president emphasized that Europe must have agency.
“The economy of Europe, the European Union, is times larger than Russia’s. The potential is dozens of times greater than that of Russia. It (Europe, – ed.) is very strong to be independent. An independent Europe is important. And then there is America’s respect for Europe and Europe’s respect for America. It is the union of continents, it is strong in protecting any state and for any support,” Zelensky said.
As reported, Ukraine received the first tranche of EUR 3 billion from the EU derived from the proceeds off frozen Russian assets.
Source: Zelensky expects EU decisions on all frozen Russian assets
