Britain should confiscate billions of dollars in Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine by plane, demands NATO ally Estonia

The UK and EU should confiscate hundreds of billions of pounds worth of legally frozen Russian assets and hand them over to Ukraine, along with groundbreaking long-range warplanes and missiles, to help President Volodymyr Zelensky decisively defeat Vladimir Putin, Estonia’s foreign minister. called.

opposing IUrmas Reinsalu called on the UK and his country’s other NATO allies to significantly increase military and financial support to Ukraine as soon as possible after the alliance had previously hesitated over tanks and artillery, and called for much tighter European restrictions on Russian oil exports.

“We need to change our paradigm of support for Ukraine, give what Ukraine needs to help it win and create a turning point on the battlefield,” said Reinsalu, whose government in Tallinn has been one of Kyiv’s most courageous supporters.

The Baltic state, which shares a 300-kilometer border with Russia, filed a lawsuit last month to seize 20 million euros in Russian-sanctioned funds in Estonian bank accounts used by Ukraine for defense and military equipment. Reconstruction costs transferred.

Reinsalu said the plan should be a plan for the larger countries that own much more of Russia’s wealth. Estonia is “trying to set an example that this is possible” for others. “We encourage other countries, including the UK and EU countries.”

The UK has frozen the assets of oligarchs and other Russians worth £18bn since the tightening of sanctions last spring, meaning they cannot be used or sold, leaving many expensive properties and yachts locked up and empty. On Wednesday, he imposed further sanctions on arms companies and powerful individuals.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the EU has frozen another 19 billion euros in private assets and about 165 billion euros in the reserves of the Moscow central bank.

However, if the sanctions are lifted in the future, the Russian owners will return them under control.

The current legal method to take the next step and seize these assets in the UK under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 would require lengthy and complex investigations to prove the criminality of their Russian owners in court. The EU has launched a takeover plan, but it will prove just as complex in Brussels and across the continent.

“It takes time, there are many legal arguments,” Mr. Reinsalu acknowledged. But he added: “To combat genocide and crimes against humanity, this confiscation of the assets of the aggressor state is not impossible.”

He argued that the importance of Kyiv’s confiscation of all this wealth by the Moscow government and elite would be enormous. “This is more than all the support Western countries gave Ukraine last year, be it military, economic or humanitarian. For Ukraine, survival and resistance will be crucial.”

During President Zelenskiy’s visit to the UK on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Rishi Sunak asked Ben Wallace to explore the possibility of sending fighter jets to Ukraine, an idea backed by Boris Johnson. The prime minister has previously said it was “not feasible” and US President Joe Biden has opposed it, but Estonia strongly supports the move.

“We must unconditionally provide all the conventional weapons that Ukraine requires,” Reinsalu said. “I wrote that last April [Nato should provide] Tanks, fighter jets and long-range missiles, and Western countries should immediately invest 100 billion euros in military aid. We’re not there yet, nine months later. But we will definitely do it.”

“Democracies are often slow, like elephants. The beasts tend to move faster and faster,” he added. “Time is of the essence. Russia intends to prolong this war, make the survival of Ukrainian society more painful and wear out many of our societies. We must balance this by reducing the war. The only sensible way is to invest in Ukrainian military power.”

Estonia is a small country of 1.3 million people, but proportionately it has been one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters. Military assistance accounts for about half of the country’s own defense budget and 1 percent of the country’s total GDP.

Some leaders fear that equipping Ukraine with modern aircraft could prompt Russia to step up the war or even attack other European countries. But Mr. Reinsalu said that argument has been proven over and over again by other technologies.

“First it was discussed whether howitzers would aggravate the war, then it was about tanks, now about fighters, then about long-range missiles. Let’s put things in perspective: Russia is already using this spectrum of weapons.”

To the argument that training Ukrainian pilots to fly new aircraft like British Typhoons, French Rafalies or American F-16s would take many months, he said: “These are zombie arguments. You will be trained before and after every major decision. It is a matter of political will.

“I have also spoken to military instructors in my country and in Ukraine – I am sure that all these military skills will be implemented smoothly and will make a difference.”

The EU, the G7 countries and Australia on Sunday tightened their energy restrictions on Russia by imposing cap prices on imported gasoline, diesel and other fuels. But when asked if that was enough, Mr Reinsalu replied: “Of course not.

“It’s a good move … but far from enough, because Russia is still making a huge net profit from these sales,” he said. “We have to admit that every day Russia receives hundreds of millions of revenues that go back into the Russian war machine. We must do everything in our power.”