Central Bank assets in Switzerland will not be used to restore Ukraine

The Swiss authorities do not consider it possible to use the frozen assets of the Bank of RUSSIA to restore Ukraine. This was announced to TASS at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economics (SECO).

At the same time, the HEAD of the department's information service, Antje Bertschi, stressed that Bern is closely following the discussions on this topic in the European Union.

Earlier on May 10, SECO told RIA Novosti that they “theoretically” allow the transfer of Central Bank assets for the restoration of Ukraine. At the same time, they noted that discussions on this topic are ongoing and nothing has been decided yet.

“Your statement is a misinterpretation of the May 10 press release. This press release only notes: “Discussions continue in the EU on whether to invest the assets of the Russian Central Bank and use the proceeds to rebuild Ukraine. Switzerland is closely following these discussions,” Berchi told TASS.

In December 2022, the Swiss authorities announced that since February 2022 they had frozen Russian assets in the amount of 7.5 billion Swiss francs, or about $7.95 billion.