The Guardian: Ukraine lobbying UN and allies to clear legal path for extracting Russian compensation for war damage

According to a story in The Guardian, “Ukraine is lobbying the UN general assembly to adopt a resolution that will become the basis for the creation of an international compensation mechanism that could lead to the seizure of as much as $300bn of Russian state assets overseas.”

“It is argued that if Russian central bank assets are appropriated, as opposed simply to being frozen as at present, any western assets held overseas could also become prey to seizure.”

“In May, in conjunction with Columbia law school, Ukraine set up an International Claims and Reparations Project including the British barrister Alison Macdonald, the former state department legal adviser Jeremy Sharpe and two Columbia professors, Lori Damrosch and Patrick Pearsall.”

“They claim there is precedent for seizure of Russian state assets historically, pointing to compensation claims made against Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait, compensation paid by Iran to the US over the embassy hostage crisis, and the recent US seizure of Afghan central bank assets.”