The decision to freeze frozen Russian assets must be made collegially and is unlikely to happen quickly, US special representative for economic recovery in Ukraine Penny Pritzker said at the World Economic Forum on Monday, Ukrinform reports.

Western countries have frozen more than $300 billion in sovereign assets of the Russian central bank since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Bloomberg reported last week that the White House supports legislation that would allow Russian funds to be seized. It seems that Washington is trying to coordinate such a measure with the members of the Big Seven (G7).

“I think there is a huge hope that Russian sovereign assets can become an easy source of financing,” Pritzker said on the sidelines of the Davos summit, according to Radio France Internationale (RFI).

“Everything is very difficult. And the first thing you know is a lot of lawyers to get involved,” she added.

About two-thirds of the assets are kept in European accounts, while only up to 5 billion dollars are frozen in American institutions, Kyiv Independent reports.

So far, the countries involved have been hesitant to fully freeze assets due to numerous legal and fiscal obstacles.

Instead, the EU discussed ways to establish an exceptional tax for Ukraine on profits derived from frozen assets. In October, Belgium announced the creation of a fund for Ukraine in the amount of 1.8 billion dollars, which will be financed by tax revenues from interest from frozen Russian assets.

At the beginning of 2023, the World Bank estimated that the total cost of rebuilding Ukraine would be 411 billion dollars. Earlier this week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba commented that the total value of Russian assets could cover more than 80% of recovery costs.

The US, backed by the UK, Japan and Canada, is reportedly preparing viable options for asset freezes, which are expected to be discussed at the G7 meeting in February.