EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told regional security talks on Thursday that he planned to discuss with his counterparts any available legal means to ensure Russia pays for the reconstruction of war-torn Ukraine. .
Borrell spoke at the start of this year’s two-day ministerial conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the central Polish city of Lodz.
“I will meet with my fellow foreign ministers today… We will explore all legal possibilities to ensure that Russia will pay for the destruction it has caused in Ukraine,” Borrell told reporters.
He recalled that the European Union has frozen Russian assets worth about 20 billion euros since Moscow invaded Ukraine, and that Western sanctions have resulted in 300 billion euros of the Central Bank of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves around the world. has also been frozen.
“These stores are blocked. But there is a stark difference from being blocked to being seized,” Borrell said.
“And there are legal procedures that have to be studied. But our proposal is under consideration… Russia will have to pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
Poland is hosting this year’s ministerial conference as the country currently holds the rotating presidency of the OSCE, whose members include both Russia and Ukraine.
Warsaw refused to allow Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov into Poland for the conference under European sanctions, triggering an angry reaction from Moscow.
Russia’s delegation to the conference is instead being led by Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich.
“The West is doing exactly what the OSCE was designed to counter – it is creating a dividing line,” Lavrov told reporters on Thursday.
He added that “our Polish neighbors have been digging graves for this organization all year long, destroying what remains of a culture of consensus”.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau denied the “outrageous” allegations, telling the Lodz conference that “it was Russia that rejected the renewed European security talks in February” and had since blocked several OSCE decisions.
Senior US diplomat Victoria Nuland, who was in Lodz, said she was “optimistic about the future of the OSCE”.
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nuland told reporters, “Just as he has failed to defeat Ukraine… (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has also failed in his attempt to split or destroy the OSCE.”
The OSCE was founded in 1975 – at the height of the Cold War – to foster relations between the Western and Eastern Blocs.
It currently has 57 member states, including NATO countries and Moscow’s allies.
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