Ukraine to use $460 million worth of confiscated Russian assets for reconstruction

The government will use the assets seized from two Russian banks, MR Bank and Prominvestbank, to rebuild the country, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said during a conference on March 4. The fund had been added to the budget after the banks’ liquidations on Feb. 25, 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion. In early December, the World Bank estimated that the cost of Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction was upwards of 600 billion euros. Following Russia’s continuous attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure since early October, the World Bank’s estimate of the cost of Ukraine’s post-war recovery had increased by over 200 billion euros since June, when the forecast was set at 350 billion euros. In December 2022, the U.S. Senate approved an amendment allowing the transfer of seized assets belonging to Russian oligarchs to the people of Ukraine.