The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to seize Russian assets that have been frozen in the EU to punish Russia for its war against Ukraine and help Kiev rebuild its country, Reuters reported.

Officials in the European Union, the United States and other Western countries have spent months debating how to legally seize Russian assets abroad that have been frozen under sanctions, whether private financial assets or other Russian state assets.

One of the main problems is that in EU member states confiscation of such assets is possible only after a criminal conviction.

Another problem is that some assets of Russian citizens on the sanctions list are difficult to confiscate or even block, as they are registered to their family members or other interlocutors, precisely to avoid such measures.

“We have frozen 300 billion euros, which represent the reserves of the Russian Central Bank, and we have frozen 19 billion euros of Russian oligarchs’ money,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Wednesday.

The EU also wants an international court to investigate the war started by Vladimir Putin

She said that in the short term, the EU and its partners can manage the funds and invest them. The profits will go to Ukraine to compensate for the huge losses from the war.

“We will work on an international agreement with our partners to make this possible. And together we will be able to find a legal way,” von der Leyen said.

She also announced that the EU will offer to create a specialized court with the support of the UN to “investigate and judge the crime of Russian aggression.”

Russia has accused the freezing of its central bank assets and gold reserves held abroad as illegal and likened it to “theft”.

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, has been saying since the beginning of May that he wants to seize Russian assets that are under sanctions.

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