(Moscow) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called the freezing of Russian assets in the West and their use to help Ukraine resist Russia “theft” and vowed to retaliate, following an agreement to that effect reached the previous day at the G7.
“Western countries have frozen part of Russian assets and foreign currency reserves. And now they are thinking about a legal basis to definitively appropriate them,” he declared in front of the executives of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“Even if we embellish things, theft is still theft and it will not go unpunished,” he added.
The G7 announced on Thursday a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, guaranteed by future interest from Russian assets frozen since Russia launched its assault on Ukraine in February 2022.
“It is right that Russia pays,” reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the “Group of 7” table, but he called for the outright confiscation of the 300 billion euros in assets of the central bank of Russia frozen by the EU and the G7, which the latter refuse for legal reasons.
Russia estimated on Friday that the security agreement signed the day before between the United States and Ukraine was a simple “piece of paper” with no real binding value.
“The fact is that [these agreements] are just pieces of paper […]. These agreements are nothing, they have no legal value,” declared Russian diplomatic spokesperson Maria Zakharova, quoted by Russian news agencies.
Ukraine signed security agreements with the United States and Japan on Thursday, after having done the same with several other Western countries in recent months including France and the United Kingdom.
These documents are essentially promises from these countries to continue providing long-term military and financial support to confront the Russian offensive.
According to Maria Zakharova, these documents aim above all to “demonstrate to citizens remaining in Ukraine […] that the world community still seems to be with them.” “In reality, they legally absolve themselves of any responsibility for the future of Ukraine,” she added.
Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, estimated Thursday that the ten-year agreement signed with the United States “opens the way for Ukraine’s integration into NATO.”
This document must also “contribute to deterring and confronting any future aggression”, according to the terms of the text.
