PM Shmyhal announces nationalization of Russian-owned assets in Ukraine

KYIV. May 11 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The Ukrainian government is transferring all Russian assets in Ukraine to the state-controlled National Investment Fund, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

"We have already discussed the master plan to rebuild Ukraine with all of our partners. The National Council on the Restoration of Ukraine and its working groups have already started to function. Our idea is that one of the main sources to finance this fund will be the seized Russian assets and money," Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Tuesday.

"There is a document on our agenda today that says that the Russian assets located in the territory of Ukraine shall be transferred to the state, i.e. to the state enterprise National Investment Fund. We will take everything that Russia owns in our country," the prime minister said.

The government has also instructed the Economy Ministry to work out a procedure for handing over the Ukrainian-based assets seized from Russia and its residents to the National Investment Fund of Ukraine and for placing them under the fund's operational management.

The government's Resolution No. 552, dated May 10, gives the Economy Ministry two weeks to submit to the government a document detailing the procedure for transferring the Ukrainian-based assets seized from Russia and its residents in compliance with the law "On the main principles of the compulsory seizure of the Ukrainian-based assets owned by the Russian Federation and its residents" to the National Investment Fund of Ukraine and for placing them under the fund's operational management.

According to the Ukrainian parliament's website, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted a decree on the expropriation of property items of the Russian Federation and its residents in Ukraine to the Verkhovna Rada on Wednesday.

Bill No. 7371 endorsing said presidential decree was registered on the parliament's website.

"The Ukrainian presidential decree enforcing the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's resolution on expropriating property items of the Russian Federation and its residents in Ukraine has to be endorsed by the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada through passing relevant legislation within six months after the lifting or termination of martial law in Ukraine," the bill says.

The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council adopted a resolution on the expropriation of Russian property items on May 11, 2022, thes explanatory note to the bill says.