Ukraine seizes $71 million of assets owned by Russian state companies

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine has seized belongings value over 2.1 billion hryvnias ($71 million) owned by Russian state oil firm Rosneft, gasoline agency Gazprom and nuclear power company Rosatom, Ukraine’s state safety service mentioned on Friday.

The SBU mentioned in a press release that Russia had used a number of the earnings from these belongings to arrange its invasion of Ukraine and fund sabotage and intelligence actions.

Rosneft and Gazprom didn’t instantly reply to Reuters requests for remark. Rosatom declined to remark. The Kremlin didn’t instantly touch upon SBU’s assertion.

Ukraine says it might price $750 billion to rebuild after the invasion and that wealthy Russians ought to assist pay the invoice.

By the top of June it had seized belongings in Ukraine value 31 billion hryvnias from Russian people and corporations it accuses of being complicit within the struggle. Earlier seizures focused Russian oil firm Tatneft and Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, amongst others.

The SBU mentioned it was working with the police beneath the steerage of prosecutors to determine firms managed by Russia.

It mentioned makes an attempt had been made to switch the seized belongings owned by Rosneft, Gazprom and Rosatom to different house owners however they’d been blocked.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “particular navy operation” to demilitarise its southern neighbour and shield Russian audio system from what it calls nationalists.

Ukraine and its Western allies say it is a baseless pretext for flagrant aggression that goals to grab territory.

($1 = 29.5400 hryvnias)

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Pavel Polityuk, Writing by Alexander Profitable, Modifying by Timothy Heritage)