Swiss lawmakers on Thursday voted in favor of measures that would allow the use of Russian assets frozen in the country to finance military reparations in Ukraine, AFP reports.

The upper house of parliament voted 21 for, 19 against and three abstained for a series of proposals put forward by the government. The lower house passed them last year.

They could allow the government to create a legal basis for using frozen assets of aggressor states to pay reparations to attacked countries.

The issue is hotly debated in Switzerland, where discretion in the banking sector and the country’s tradition of neutrality are important.

More than eight billion dollars of reserves and assets of the Russian central bank are stored in Swiss institutions.

“The facts are very clear: Russia has seriously violated international law. Therefore, they must restore the damage caused, this is the current law,” said Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.

Bern will now work to create the international legal framework necessary to create an international redress mechanism.

This would involve allowing the legal transfer of frozen funds from the central bank of the aggressor country or the assets of its state-owned companies to the aggressor state.

The head of Swiss diplomacy noted that since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Switzerland has contributed about 3 billion Swiss francs (3.1 billion euros) to the Ukrainian people.

“We have nothing to be ashamed of when we talk about Ukraine on the international stage,” Kassis added, “financially, diplomatically, or humanitarianly.”

However, Switzerland refused to send weapons to Kyiv or allow countries that have Swiss-made weapons to re-export them to Ukraine.

Instead, it joined the economic sanctions imposed by the EU on Moscow.

Switzerland agreed to freeze 7.5 billion Swiss francs (7.8 billion euros) in Russian funds and assets owned or controlled by sanctioned individuals, companies or entities, the ministry said at the time.

Switzerland has long been a favorite destination for the Russian rich.

The Swiss Banking Association estimated that as of March 2022, Russian clients held approximately 150 billion Swiss francs (over 156 billion euros) in Swiss institutions.