Ukraine should receive frozen Russian assets before any negotiations with Russia - former US Assistant Secretary of State Rademaker
The best option is to provide Ukraine with frozen Russian assets before any negotiations with Russia will begin.
This was stated by former Assistant Secretary of State Steven Rademaker during the Kyiv Security Forum, Censor.NET reports.
"The war will end someday, no matter what, and there will be negotiations. I don't think the war will end with Russia surrendering to Ukraine. There will be some negotiations on the conditions for ending the war.
We know what Russia will want in these negotiations. There will be issues of borders, whether Ukraine can join NATO and the EU, and so on. But essentially, they will ask for two things: the lifting of Western sanctions against Russia and the return of $300 billion," he explained.
According to Reidmaker, the best option would be if Ukraine already had these funds by then.
"The best thing to do would be to say: it's too late, this money is gone. If the money is still available, it will be very difficult to resist these demands of Russia," said the former US Assistant Secretary of State.
He noted that Russian assets were frozen to make Russia stop the war, so they should be used to compensate for the damage caused, not for any other needs.
"If the money is used for other purposes, it will be very difficult to justify this step (confiscation - Ed.) in a legal sense. This money should be used exclusively for those who became victims of this war and for compensation for the damage caused by the Russian Federation during this war," he concluded.
The Kyiv Security Forum, founded by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk "Open Ukraine" Foundation, is the main international platform of our country for discussing issues of war and peace, national and global security.
Censor.NET is a media partner of the Kyiv Security Forum.
