UK To Keep Russian State Assets Immobilized Until Compensation Is Paid For Ukraine Aggression

The Council of Europe has established a digital register of damage for Ukraine as a first step towards an international compensation mechanism.

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said that Russia's sovereign assets will remain immobilized until Russia agrees to pay for the damage it has caused in Ukraine.

However, no solution has been found yet regarding the confiscation of Russian state assets, and the UK is reluctant to be seen as at loggerheads with Ukraine over the issue.

The UK has also indicated that it will keep Russian central bank assets immobilized for some time after the war in Ukraine ends, and certainly until Moscow has agreed to pay compensation for the damage it has inflicted.

Tory backbench MPs, the Labour party, and the Ukrainian government are calling for Russian state assets held in the UK to be seized and handed directly to Ukraine for reconstruction.

A register of damages with its offices in The Hague and a satellite office in Ukraine is being established to serve as a record of evidence and claims information on damage caused by Russian aggression.

The UK is reluctant to be seen as taking any actions that would breach international law and lead to countermeasures against the UK.

The UK's foreign affairs select committee was told that seizing Russian state assets would be in breach of international law.

In response to a request for compensation from Ukraine for the Russian invasion of Crimea, Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, discussed the possibility of freezing Russian assets as a countermeasure.

He argued that this would be a proportionate response to the Russian breach of international law, and that it could be kept in place as long as Russia does not comply with the compensation request.

Kostin also suggested that direct seizure of Russian assets would be a more effective way to achieve justice, rather than relying solely on freezing assets.