Minister G. Skaistė: "Today we have to agree on how we will help Ukraine in 2025-2026"
"The West must start discussing how to help Ukraine in the coming years 2025 and 2026 and take immediate steps to tighten sanctions against russia now," Minister of Finance Gintarė Skaistė told the international business publication "Bne IntelliNews".
The Minister, who recently visited Ukraine, said that the aid packages from the European Union and the United States of America were a good sign for Ukrainians, as support is vital for them. According to G. Skaistė, in order to finance this continuing commitment, the West should use not only the net profits from the frozen russian assets, but also the assets themselves.
"We understand that the war may last longer than we would like, so we need to agree on how we will help Ukraine in 2025 and 2026," she said during a visit to Yerevan in the context of the EBRD's annual meetings. "In our opinion, the wisest decision would be to use russia’s frozen assets and deliver it to Ukraine."
In her interview to the news agency publishing business news and data on emerging markets, G. Skaistė also noted that she supports the US proposal at the G7 meeting – to use frozen assets as collateral on an issue of USD 50 billion issue of bonds to finance Ukraine.
In order to further increase the pressure on russia, according to the Minister, it is necessary to minimize the possibilities of circumventing sanctions and introduce new sanctions, especially in the energy and banking sectors.
"We must focus on the implementation of sanctions and expand the scope of sanctions, because there are still sectors that generate a lot of revenue for russia and contribute to the financing of the military industry," she emphasized.
In addition to the general EU sanctions, Lithuania has taken national measures to stop the possible travel of dual-use goods to the territory of the aggressor, and together with other Baltic states, Poland and Finland already apply the same system of blocking goods.
"We have compiled our national list of dual-use goods that should not be delivered to russia, and we do not allow those goods through our borders," Minister G. Skaistė told Bne IntelliNews.
Full interview with the Minister is available here.
Last updated: 03-06-2024
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