More than £2.3 billion from Roman Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea Football Club may finally be used for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Foreign secretary David Lammy vowed to take ‘action’ against the Russian oligarch that could include launching a legal case.
This would be the government’s latest attempt to unfreeze proceeds from the deal that closed more than two years ago as sanctions were enacted against the billionaire following Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Hardening Britain’s position on how the West should use bonds and other frozen securities, Lammy said he is ‘determined’ to see that the money ‘get out the door’ and to Ukraine.
‘I am frustrated that it hasn’t happened, is the truth and that money needs to be distributed, it needs to be used,’ he told the Financial Times in Tokyo.
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He said he is shifting to an ‘action-oriented approach’ to try and break the gridlock.
There are legal complexities, but the minister said his ‘first instinct is not litigation’ because of how long it could take.
Britain’ has always stressed that the money must be spent inside Ukraine.
Abramovich was sanctioned weeks after the start of the invasion after the government said he had been ‘involved in destabilising Ukraine and had undermined and threatened the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine’ via the steel manufacturing company Evraz PLC.
He was allowed to sell the west London club, which he had owned since 2003, but only if the ‘net proceeds’ go to ‘victims of the war in Ukraine’.
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Between £233 and £271 billion of Russian assets have been seized by UK, US and European governments since February 2022.
European leaders have long wanted to use those assets to help rebuild Ukraine, but have yet to reach an agreement on how to avoid legal challenges or setting a problematic international precedent, with several options under consideration.
When asked if he would support emergency legislation to seize and repurpose the assets to support Ukraine, Lammy told parliament: ‘Europe has to act quickly, and I believe we should move from freezing assets to seizing assets.
‘It’s not an issue on which any government can act alone. We must act with European allies.’
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