Government adviser says Britain should confiscate mansions to fund postwar rebuilding
Ministers should confiscate the mansions, country estates and UK assets of Russian oligarchs to help pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine, a senior adviser in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said this weekend.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, a sanctions expert working in the presidential office, said Ukraine’s government would like the UK to follow Canada in implementing new regulations that allow authorities to seize and redistribute assets belonging to sanctioned individuals and entities.
He said Russia should pay the hundreds of billions of dollars needed for reconstruction, rather than taxpayers in western countries. The UK government said in March it had frozen more than £18bn in Russian assets and was considering seizing them.
“It must be Russia which is held accountable and must pay,” said Vlasiuk. “Assets which are here in the UK and other jurisdictions are easily accessible. We would like to see those confiscated and sent to Ukraine for reconstruction.”
Vlasiuk spoke to the Observer as ministers and officials prepare to host governments, business leaders and non-governmental organisations in London this week for a Ukraine recovery conference.
The estimated cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine is now more than $400bn, with the costs on a similar scale to the Marshall plan, the US-sponsored programme to support the economic recovery of Europe after the second world war.
Vlasiuk said seizing assets would present legal problems but he thought they could be surmounted. “It’s absolutely justified to make Russia pay for the damages in Ukraine,” he said. “It will be a good lesson for other dictators.
