European Union officials are discussing the possibility of using the assets of sanctioned Russian tycoons to finance Ukraine's reconstruction after the war.
This was reported by Bloomberg, citing three people familiar with the matter.
According to the sources, the idea is at a very early stage and a decision has not yet been made.
One possibility was to use the assets to fund war reparations. Any decision on how to handle the assets would ultimately have to be made by member states.
"At this point, the assets are only frozen. The president has not asked that this issue be investigated," said European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month, the EU imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian tycoons, including some of the country's richest billionaires. After the sanctions were adopted, several member states seized assets such as yachts, private jets and property. Italy alone has frozen assets worth about 780 million euros.
The current sanctions regime allows the freezing of assets and the EU announced Thursday that it is creating a "Freeze and Confiscate" working group to share information among member states in order to better implement the measures.
As a reminder, European Council President Charles Michel said he supports the creation of a solidarity fund for Ukraine to provide basic services and address the urgent needs of Ukrainian citizens.
