Nobel laureates urge frozen Russian funds to be used for Ukraine

Frozen Russian assets should be used for the reconstruction of Ukraine and compensation to the victims of the war following a peace agreement, according to an appeal signed by more than 130 Nobel laureates.

The signatories include Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, Polish activist Lech Wałęsa, authors Elfriede Jelinek, Herta Müller and Orhan Pamuk, physicists Reinhard Genzel, Ferenc Krausz and Roger Penrose, chemists Michael Levitt and Gerhard Ertl, biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and economist Edmund S Phelps.

The petition is to be handed over soon to Oleksandra Matviichuk, who heads Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties, which was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

The petition notes that Russian central bank assets totalling around €300 billion ($3.25 billion) are currently frozen as a result of sanctions imposed in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The funds are held in bank accounts in the countries of the G7 and the European Union and are generating interest.

"We, the Nobel Laureates who have signed this appeal, call on these governments to release these funds from the Russian Central Bank to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine and compensation of war victims so that the country can be rapidly rebuilt after a peace agreement is reached," the petition says.

New laws might be needed, but this was necessary "given the undeniable emergency and gross violations of international law," it says.

In July last year, the EU released €1.5 billion in interest from the Russian assets to pay for armaments for Ukraine.

According to the EU Commission, some €210 billion is currently frozen in the EU. Making use of the funds would require a dispossession order.