US Senate approves bill on seizing Russian assets to aid Ukraine

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a bill that would help Washington confiscate Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine to rebuild after the war's destruction.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 20 to 1 in favor of the unprecedented "Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act, according to Reuters.

If passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives and signed by President Joe Biden, it will pave the way for the first-ever confiscation of assets of a central bank of a country with which the US is not at war.

Senator Ben Cardin, chairman of the Democratic Party's Foreign Relations Committee, is optimistic that the bill will shift to law, as the document has broad support from both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and Biden's administration.

"Ukraine is on the verge of being overrun by Russia if we do not give them the help that they need… and we all know that it will not end with Ukraine," he said, before the committee voted.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a similar bill, also with the support of both parties. Cardin said he expects the Democratic-majority Senate and the Republican-majority House of Representatives to be able to "resolve the differences between the two legislative initiatives."

As of early August, Ukraine estimates seized assets of Russian businessmen financing the war worth almost $5 billion.

Assets of Russian oligarchs are being seized abroad.

The UK has frozen more than £18 billion ($23 billion) and imposed sanctions on more than 1,550 Russians since Russia's full-scale war.

Czechia froze the assets of Russian oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov, close to President Vladimir Putin.

Poland also offered to hand over the frozen assets to Ukraine and the EU.

On October 12, the Estonian government approved and sent to the parliament a resolution on the use of Russian frozen assets to help Ukraine.

The EU is studying the procedure of confiscating €200 billion of the Russian Central Bank. The European Commission is also developing its proposals.

Belgium has set up a special fund to support Ukraine in the amount of €1.7 billion, which is being filled by taxation of Russian assets frozen in the country.

In July, Italy announced that after Russia's invasion, it froze the assets of  oligarchs worth about €2 billion.