LONDON – The Russian embassy in London on Saturday criticized Britain’s plan to transfer more than £2 billion ($2.5 billion) backed by frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, calling it a “fraudulent scheme.”
The UK announced in October its intention to lend Ukraine £2.26 billion as part of a larger loan package from the Group of Seven (G7) nations. The loans, supported by frozen Russian central bank assets, aim to assist Ukraine in purchasing weapons and rebuilding infrastructure damaged by the ongoing war.
The decision, initially agreed upon in July by leaders of the G7—including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.S.—involves cooperation with the European Union, where the majority of frozen Russian assets are held.
“We are closely following UK authorities’ efforts aimed at implementing a fraudulent scheme of expropriating incomes from Russian state assets ‘frozen’ in the EU,” the Russian embassy stated on social media.
British Defence Minister John Healey emphasized that the funds would be exclusively used for Ukraine’s military purposes, including developing advanced drones capable of exceeding the range of some long-range missiles.
The Russian embassy dismissed the plan as an “elaborate legislative choreography” meant to obscure the “illegitimate nature” of the arrangement. Russia’s Foreign Ministry echoed this sentiment last week, describing the U.S.’s allocation of its share of the G7’s $50 billion loan package to Ukraine as “simply robbery.”
The dispute highlights escalating tensions over the utilization of frozen Russian assets, with Western nations seeking to support Ukraine’s defense and reconstruction efforts while Russia vehemently opposes these measures.