Ukraine seizes $71 million of assets owned by Russian state companies

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine has seized assets worth over 2.1 billion hryvnias ($71 million) owned by Russian state oil company Rosneft, gas firm Gazprom and nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, Ukraine’s state security service said on Friday.

The SBU said in a statement that Russia had used some of the profits from those assets to prepare its invasion of Ukraine and fund sabotage and intelligence activities.

Rosneft and Gazprom did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comment. Rosatom declined to comment. The Kremlin did not immediately comment on SBU’s statement.

Ukraine says it could cost $750 billion to rebuild after the invasion and that rich Russians should help pay the bill.

By the end of June it had seized assets in Ukraine worth 31 billion hryvnias from Russian individuals and companies it accuses of being complicit in the war. Earlier seizures targeted Russian oil company Tatneft and Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, among others.

The SBU said it was working with the police under the guidance of prosecutors to identify companies controlled by Russia.

It said attempts had been made to transfer the seized assets owned by Rosneft, Gazprom and Rosatom to other owners but they had been blocked.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to demilitarise its southern neighbour and protect Russian speakers from what it calls nationalists.

Ukraine and its Western allies say this is a baseless pretext for flagrant aggression that aims to seize territory.

($1 = 29.5400 hryvnias)

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Pavel Polityuk, Writing by Alexander Winning, Editing by Timothy Heritage)