The Government continues to work to ensure that russia compensates and pays for the damage caused to Ukraine. This was emphasised by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal during the first meeting of the Interagency Working Group on the use/recovery of frozen/confiscated sovereign assets of russia for the benefit of Ukraine on 13 March.

The Group's members include Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine and Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Sergii Marchenko, Minister of Finance, Andriy Pyshnyi, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, Iryna Mudra, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Oleh Ivashchenko, Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, and Filip Pronin, Head of the State Financial Monitoring Service.

The participants discussed a number of important issues. In addition to considering the work of the Interagency Working Group and the ministries, the agenda included such topics as working with international partners, establishing a dialogue on the confiscation of russia's immovable assets and the ways in which these funds can be used in Ukraine.

"We are grateful to our friends and allies for freezing all the aggressor's assets on the territory of their countries. We are grateful to the G7 countries and the European Union for the initiative that allows these assets to work for the benefit of Ukraine right now and strengthen our resilience during the war," said Denys Shmyhal.

He noted that, according to the World Bank report, the damage caused by russia to Ukraine reaches USD 524 billion. Meanwhile, about USD 300 billion worth of russian assets are currently frozen in the West.

"We insist that all these assets should be confiscated and transferred to Ukraine. We are pursuing systematic work in this direction," the Head of Government emphasised.

On the results of the meeting, a further work plan was determined with the relevant agencies given appropriate instructions.