The United States and European partners are studying the legal basis for using frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine, including $300 billion, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said.
“In my opinion, if you hack something, you have to pay for it. And if the Russians have hacked, they should pay for it. And one of the ways to do that is through these assets. We have to make sure that there is a legal basis for this. As I said, since most of these assets are in Europe, the Europeans also have to make sure that there is a legal basis for this,” he said during a discussion at the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday, October 4.
According to Blinken, we are talking about $300 billion.
The secretary of state believes that allowing Russia to do what it is doing to Ukraine without punishment will send a signal around the world to countries that are going to start aggression that they can get away with it: “This is opening a Pandora’s box of conflicts. No one will be happy in this world, a world of conflict and aggression,” he said.
In his opinion, in this world, the United States would invariably be involved in a conflict, and it would cost much more than supporting Ukraine.
Bleicken also noted that 50 countries are actively supporting Ukraine.
