German Foreign Minister Johann Wadeful said that Berlin is theoretically ready to consider the possibility of Russian state assets frozen in the country being made available to a war reparations fund for Ukraine, as proposed by the European Commission, DPA reports, BTA reports.
However, the plans must first be reviewed, Wadeful said ahead of the annual meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna. The minister noted that this is “uncharted legal territory,” but Berlin has a clear political goal: to make the assets usable so that Ukraine receives the necessary financial support and Russia bears responsibility for the war it started.
Wadeful said that Germany is in close consultation with all EU member states with the aim of achieving a fruitful outcome at the European Council before Christmas. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hopes that the bloc’s leaders will agree on the use of frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine at the next summit on December 18-19.
So far, Germany has not disclosed the exact amount of Russian central bank funds held in the country.