The head of the EU’s executive body announced on Wednesday that the European Commission will collaborate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to “help establish up a specialized court to try Russia’s crimes.”
“Russian aggression against a sovereign state is one of the heinous crimes for which the country must answer. And because of this, we are recommending the establishment of a specialized court supported by the UN to look into and adjudicate Russia’s crime of aggression while continuing to support the International Criminal Court “In a video message that she shared on Twitter, Ursula von der Leyen made a statement.
Von der Leyen added that Ukraine’s losses are estimated to be about €600 billion ($621.8 billion) and that Russia must bear the financial burden for the destruction it creates.
“Russia and its oligarchs must pay Ukraine for the losses and fund the price of the country’s reconstruction,” she continued.
According to Von von Leyen, the bloc has already frozen €19 billion in assets belonging to Russian oligarchs and restricted €300 billion in reserves held by the Russian Central Bank.
She added that once the sanctions against Russia were lifted, these funds should be used as full compensation for Ukraine. “In the short term, we could create, with our partners, a structure to manage these funds and invest them,” she said.
To make this happen, she stated, “We will work on an international agreement with our partners.”