“Russia must pay”
Ursula von der Leyen made a statement condemning Russia’s military special operation in Ukraine and offered to send frozen Russian assets to Kiev. Video of her performance published on the European Commission website.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brought death, destruction and indescribable suffering. <...> It is estimated that more than 20,000 civilians and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed so far,” he said.
According to him, “Russia should pay” for military special operations. Therefore, the European Commission, which “continues to support the International Criminal Court”, proposes the establishment of a “specialized court” with the support of the UN to “investigate and prosecute” Russia’s crimes.
Later, from the recording of Ursula von der Leyen’s speech, a piece of Ukraine’s losses disappeared. The European Commission described this as a mistake: it should have stated the number of dead and injured 100,000 people.
EC political communications director Dana Spinant said in a statement on her social media account that the figures given by the president of the European Commission included the injured.
“Thanks to those who pointed out the inaccuracy in the numbers in the previous version of this video. The assessment used from outside sources should refer to the missing, that is, both the dead and the wounded, and show Russia’s atrocities,” Dana Spinant said in a message.
The Ukrainian side did not confirm such statistics. Ukrainian President’s Press Spokesman Serhiy Nikiforov previously described the information on the dead as “sensitive” and said that only the commander-in-chief, defense minister and president of the country can give the exact figures.
The head of the European Commission noted that the organization is ready to start working with the international community to “provide the widest possible international support to this specialized court”.
“Russia also has to pay for the destruction it has caused financially. The damage suffered by Ukraine is estimated at 600 billion euros. Russia and the oligarchs must compensate for the damage done to Ukraine and cover the cost of rebuilding the country. And we have the means to make Russia pay for it. Von der Leyen said: “We blocked 300 billion euros of Russian Central Bank reserves and froze 19 billion euros of Russian oligarchs’ money.”
He proposed creating a structure to “manage and invest in these funds” in the near future and then “use the proceeds for Ukraine”.
“And as soon as the sanctions are lifted, these funds should be used to ensure that Russia is fully compensated for the damage done to Ukraine. To make this possible, we will work with our partners on an international agreement. And together we can find legal ways to get there,” the EC president promised.
In an interview with RIA Novosti, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko described Ursula von der Leyen’s speech as “another attempt to steal Russian assets”.
“All this intense activity of the EC is aimed at finding ways to ‘legitimate’ the illegal sanctions imposed on our country and the theft of assets belonging to Russian natural and legal persons,” said Grushko.
UN General Assembly Resolution
In mid-November, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a draft resolution on payment of compensation from Russia to Ukraine. In particular, the document provides for the creation of an “international register” that will contain information about the damage, loss or damage done by Russia to Ukraine.
94 countries voted for the resolution. 14 states opposed. These include Russia, China, Belarus, North Korea, Iran and Syria. 73 countries abstained.
On 14 November, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said that any attempt through the UN General Assembly to create a mechanism to collect reparations from Russia was legally invalid.
“We have no doubt where to withdraw funds for the alleged losses. The West is doing its best to give at least some legitimacy to its actions to start spending hundreds of billions of dollars worth of sovereign assets frozen and actually stolen from the Russian Federation, ”the diplomat assured.
According to him, Western countries “have long wanted to unravel them.” He believes that these states have no intention of returning the assets to the “rightful owner” and “spending them to help Ukraine”. On the contrary, Nebenzia believes they want to use the money to “finance the growing arms supplies to Kiev and pay off their debts for the arms already transferred”.
“So the West wants to prolong and aggravate the conflict by planning to use Russian money for this. It needs the relevant decision of the General Assembly as a cover for this obvious robbery. “The development of events in this way will only lead to an increase in tension and instability around the world,” he said.
Ukraine counts
The previous day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during the presentation of Odessa’s bid to host Expo 2030 that more than $1 trillion would be needed to restore Ukraine.
According to him, now Kyiv is developing a system that will allow partner countries to “take a patronage” in the restoration of regions, cities or enterprises of the country.
On 11 November, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced at a government meeting that more than $200 million would be needed to restore the country’s energy infrastructure.
On September 21, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russia’s losses in the NVO were 5,937 people. According to him, during the same period the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost more than 100 thousand people – 61,207 dead and 49,368 wounded.
Source: Gazeta
Ben Stock is a business analyst and writer for “Social Bites”. He offers insightful articles on the latest business news and developments, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of the business world.