US: Russia must cover the cost of Ukraine's rebuilding

Washington is discussing with partners how Russia’s frozen assets can be used to benefit Kiev, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNN on Saturday. The US believes Russia should cover the cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction, but admits there are certain legal restrictions on what can be done with them. Victoria Nuland, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, said that Washington was working on making Moscow help pay for “all that it has broken.” The US Congress granted the Justice Department authority to use “illicit assets seized from Russian oligarchs” to help rebuild Ukraine, and Western nations have frozen an estimated total of $300 billion of these assets since the start of the conflict. Moscow has previously slammed any potential Western attempts to transfer seized Russian assets to Ukraine as “barbarism,” and has warned that it goes against international law.