Ukraine's Finance Minister calls on EU to strengthen sanctions against Russia and speed up confiscation of its assets

Ukrainska Pravda
·2 min read
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Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko has called for the strengthening of sanctions against Russia during an informal meeting of EU ministers of economy and finance on 29 April.

Source: Ministry of Finance of Ukraine press service

Details: "First of all, even taking into account the unprecedented sanctions, they did not have a devastating enough impact on the aggressor's economy as we all expected. We should focus on strengthening the implementation of sanctions and closing loopholes that allow evasion. It is important to impose restrictions on countries that help russia.

Secondly, it is necessary to accelerate the development of mechanisms for confiscating russian assets and directing them to rebuild Ukraine. The aggressor must be held accountable for its actions and compensate our country for the losses," Marchenko said.

In addition, the minister noted in his speech that the Ukrainian financial system is in a better condition than a year ago, and the economy is showing a gradual recovery.

Regarding budget implementation, Serhii Marchenko noted that this year external financing is coming in rhythmically and predictably, and internal budget revenues have increased, which together allows state budget expenditures to be financed on time and in full.

It was added that the Finance Minister in this context called on partners to join the financing of the World Bank's URTF (Ukraine Relief, Recovery, Reconstruction and Reform Trust Fund) and SPURR (Special Program for Ukraine's Recovery and Crisis Response) projects. The WB funds were established to mobilise funds from donors for rapid recovery projects.

Background:

  • The Russian Government has approved a draft law on a long-term savings programme – money collected from citizens will be used to cover the budget deficit.

  • The EU intends to ban the transit of many goods through the Russian Federation in order to strengthen compliance with already imposed sanctions.

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