"If we work at the pace we are working right now, the first payments of these windfall profits, that we estimate in the first year around about 2.5 to 2 billion euros a year, might be accessible and can be invested and support Ukraine in the military needs it has," von der Leyen told a press conference.
Moscow has maintained that such an attempt goes against international law. The Russian Foreign Ministry has dismissed the freezing of Russian assets as theft.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin dubbed the West’s asset seizure as “unseemly business,” and stressed that “stealing other people’s assets has never brought anyone good”.