Today, the President of Ukraine, the Government, and the Parliament are working with each state on various platforms to convince our partners that russia must pay for all crimes of aggression. We have already seen the first significant progress in this direction – the partners have agreed to transfer the proceeds of the frozen funds of the russian federation to Ukraine. Also, on 2 April, the international Register of Damages from russian aggression, which was established last year at the Council of Europe summit, will start working.
This was stated by Arsenii Pushkarenko, the MP, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation.
“When we talk about the fate of the frozen funds themselves, we need a strategic decision. This is a precedent that has never been seen in world history, but russia must pay for all its crimes of aggression. This is necessary to prevent russia and any other state from launching such aggression in the future. Many countries support our position that the frozen 300 billion of sovereign russian assets should be transferred to a compensation fund that will pay compensation under the international Register of Damages,” the politician said.
He added that the European partners have already agreed to spend the profits, i.e. the deposits from the frozen russian funds, to support Ukraine. We are talking about an additional 5 billion to be spent on military support for Ukraine.
“As for the international Register of Damages from russian aggression, it forms the basis for future reparations. Any citizen of Ukraine or institution will be able to apply to this Register for compensation for damages ranging from lost property and infrastructure to crimes against humanity, including sexual crimes, deportation, etc. It is very symbolic that this Register will be launched in The Hague. The next stage will be the creation of a compensation commission,” the MP said.
According to him, it will take about a year to set up such a commission, and it will consist of international lawyers who will make decisions on compensation based on the applications recorded in the Register. Payments are planned to be made from the compensation fund, which will be filled with seized russian assets, primarily sovereign ones.