PACE Calls frozen russian assets to be used to Support the Reconstruction of Ukraine

With estimates for reconstructing Ukraine after its victory over russia reaching $486 billion, according to the United Nations, the World Bank and European Commission, it will take years to fund and fulfill this Herculean task.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) session in Strasbourg has called for frozen russian assets to be used to underwrite the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg last week, PACE recommended “the seizure of Russian state assets and their use” in support of the reconstruction of Ukraine. This course of action would “strengthen Ukraine, ensure the accountability of the Russian Federation and deter against any other future aggression.”

In adopting unanimously a resolution, based on the report by Lulzim Basha (Albania, EPP/CD), PACE said that “the aggressor State, the Russian Federation, had the obligation to provide full compensation for the damage, loss and injury caused by its wrongful acts, including the destruction of infrastructure, loss of life and economic hardships,” in accordance with the principles of international law.

Addressing the Assembly during the debate, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, stated: “The civilizational gap that separates us and Russia is gigantic. And in its depth, any illusions about this aggressive, hateful and unlawful creature disappear. The beast that terrorizes and intimidates the entire world that does not care about international norms and rules, that does not value the lives of other people or its own citizens. Therefore, friends, we must act immediately. The time of great concern and strong condemnation is over. […] The time has come for frank and truthful assessments. It is time for quick action and decisions. It is time for responsible leadership. It is time to choose a resolute, united resistance to the Russian terror.”

The resolution states that russia’s financial assets already frozen by several countries – approximately $300 billion – must be made available for the reconstruction of Ukraine, pointing out that the documented damages to Ukraine’s infrastructure and economy caused by the russia’s aggression had reached $486 billion today.

In this context, PACE called for the creation of “an international compensation mechanism” under the auspices of the Council of Europe, to comprehensively address the damages incurred by natural and legal persons affected, including the State of Ukraine. It also recommended the setting up of an “international trust fund,” where all russian assets held by Council of Europe member and non-member States will be deposited, as well as an “impartial and effective international claims commission,” to adjudicate claims presented by Ukraine and entities affected by the russian aggression.

In its resolution, PACE urged Council of Europe member and non-member states holding russian assets to “actively co-operate” in the prompt transfer of these assets to the established international compensation mechanism.

Finally, PACE recalled that the Council of Europe had led the way in expressing its solidarity with Ukraine and its people and by excluding russia from its membership, and had set up the Register of Damage to record damage, loss or injury suffered by Ukraine, as a first step towards holding russia accountable for its wrongful acts.

Speaking together with Stefanchuk during a stand-up at the end of the debate, PACE President Theodoros Rousopulos said: “I want to ask once again the governments of the Council of Europe member states to support the Ukrainian people not only with words but also by providing them with the equipment needed to end this war.”

Stefanchuk added: “This unanimous decision made by the Parliamentary Assembly will set a new benchmark for other international organizations that will inspire them to follow this path and to show that, in the third year of this horrible war, this is the support that Ukraine needs.”

Russians Subject Ukrainian POWs to Execution and Incredible Torture

There are no adjectives and superlatives left to describe russians’ crimes and brutality against Ukrainians.

Civilization has already been exposed to russian cutthroats’ rape and murder of women and girls of all ages.

Now execution of prisoners of war, beheadings, body mutilation and even needles under fingernails have become the latest blood-curdling hallmark of torturing Ukrainian soldiers as russians strive to subjugate and annihilate all Ukrainians.

According to the United Nations and other sources, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights “verified three of these incidents in which Russian servicemen executed seven Ukrainian servicemen hors de combat,” reads the latest UN report on the human rights situation in Ukraine published earlier this year.

A UN commission of inquiry on Ukraine said last month that it had gathered more evidence that Russia has systematically tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war, documenting rape threats and the use of electric shocks on genitals.

The three-member Commission of Inquiry said in a report that the scale of such torture cases may amount to the most serious abuses known as crimes against humanity, describing their occurrence as “widespread and systematic.”

“Victims’ accounts disclose relentless brutal treatment inflicting severe pain and suffering during prolonged detention, with blatant disregard for human dignity,” the chair of the commission, Erik Møse, told reporters in Geneva.

The report has been submitted to the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, which will decide in its current session whether to renew the commission’s mandate for another year.

From December to February of this yar, as invading Russian forces were rapidly advancing in Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region, and attempting to recapture Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region, dozens of execution videos were posted on social media.

In eight of the reported cases, videos showed Russian servicemen killing Ukrainian POWs who had laid down their weapons or using other captured Ukrainian POWs as human shields.

“As of 29 February 2024, OHCHR had obtained corroborating information for one of the videos,” the report reads. “In that video, what appears to be a group of armed Russian soldiers stands 15-20 meters behind three Ukrainian servicemen who are kneeling with their hands behind their heads. After a few seconds, smoke appears from the Russian soldiers’ weapons and the Ukrainian servicemen fall to the ground.”

“One of the armed soldiers then approaches the bodies and shoots at one of the soldiers lying on the ground,” according to the report.

Over the winter Russia also released 60 Ukrainian POWs. One of them confirmed to OHCHR that the incident featured in the video took place near Robotyne in December 2023 and that the killed servicemen were from his unit.

In another incident, three Ukrainian POWs, captured by Russian troops, were executed at the beginning of January 2024 in Zaporizhzhia.

“According to a witness, two Ukrainian soldiers were executed on the spot after their surrender. Russian servicemen killed a third Ukrainian POW who had been injured by a mine while being forced by the Russian servicemen to conduct demining work,” the report states.

Russian forces are also amputating the hands and arms of Ukrainian prisoners to ensure they cannot fight when they are handed back to Kyiv.

The revelation comes ahead of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry report, which is expected to be scathing about the “horrific” treatment of Ukrainian Prisoners of War by Russian security services at detention centers in Russia and occupied Ukraine.

At least 70 captured Ukrainian soldiers are said to have had limbs deliberately severed.

Describing a visit to see Ukrainian veterans at the Medical Center Orthotics and Prosthetics in Silver Spring, Maryland, in the British Sunday Express, Lord Ashcroft told how one Ukrainian soldier had been captured by Wagner mercenaries who “amputated both his arms above the elbows in the most haphazard way before making fun of him.” Lord Ashcroft added: “He later had to watch his comrades being tortured.”

Last year Russian commanders were accused of horrific atrocities, including beheading Ukrainians and making them drink petrol before setting fire to them.

Speaking on the social media platform Telegram “Dmytro,” an officer who said he was captured five months ago before being released in a prisoner exchange, revealed the barbaric action of his captors who ordered surgeons to cut off his arms.

“The medical procedure was awful, my arms are a mess, they cut both off,” he said.

“They told us you will not fight again. It is clear they want to overwhelm Ukraine with disabled soldiers.”

In an callous gesture of inhumanity, a highly decorated russian colonel, who was accused of ordering the execution of three unarmed and surrendering Ukrainian prisoners of war, was personally honored by putin.

The disturbing case has been reported to the United Nations by Kyiv’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lyubinets. Graphic footage shows russian servicemen in Krynky killing unarmed, immobile soldiers with an assault rifle.

The Ukrainian investigative outlet evocation.info has revealed that Hero of Russia Lt. Col. Sergei Ishtuganov, 37, gave the order to kill unarmed Ukrainian POWs and commit war crimes. He once told Putin he was fighting against “Nazi scum” in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials believe this is an attempt to intimidate Ukrainians so that they do not resist. And this fits into the general outline of russia’s policy of subjugating the Ukrainian people. It's an attempt to force Ukrainians to surrender through violence, executions, and deportation of our citizens.

The Red Cross has confirmed the identities of 5,000 Ukrainians in Russian captivity. But tens of thousands of people, both civilians and prisoners of war, remain missing, Ukrainian officials say.

More than 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers with life-changing injuries are undergoing treatment and rehabilitation across Europe via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

Ukrainian Journalists Missing after Russian Detention
Keep the truth and information away from the people by arresting and detaining journalists – in this case Ukrainian news reporters.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said last week that it is pressing russian authorities to confirm the whereabouts of Ukrainian journalists Heorhiy Levchenko and Anatasiya Hlukhovska, and drop all charges against them.
Levchenko and Hlukhovska’s detention was not made public until late October 2023, when Vesti Nedeli, a program of russian state-owned TV channel Rossiya 1, and russian defense ministry-affiliated TV channel Zvezda, showed videos of their arrests. Hlukhovksa’s relatives did not give CPJ permission to publish her story until April 17, 2024.
On August 20, 2023, officers with the russian federal security service (FSB) in the southeast region of Zaporizhzhia detained Levchenko, according to local news website RIA-Melitopol—which covers news in Melitopol, a city in Zaporizhzhia that has been under russian control since March 2022— and the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) trade group. Hlukhovska was detained on the same day by individuals in military garb and balaclavas, according to the Zvezda video and Hlukhovska’s sister, Diana, who spoke to CPJ.
The current location of the journalists is unknown.
“Journalists Heorhiy Levchenko and Anatasiya Hlukhovksa have been held incommunicado by russian occupying forces in Ukraine for almost eight months, simply for being journalists,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “russian authorities must immediately release them, drop all charges against them, and stop their illegal prosecution of Ukrainian nationals in occupied territories.”
Melitopol journalist Svitlana Zalizetska told CPJ that Levchenko, the administrator of the Telegram channel associated with RIA-Melitopol, was suspected of terrorism, under Article 205, Part 2 of the russian criminal code. “They’re making a terrorist out of a journalist,” Zalizetska said. If found guilty under this charge, Levchenko faces up to 20 years in jail.
In the Zvezda video showing Hlukhovska’s detention, individuals in military garb and balaclavas   are seen searching her apartment, looking at her laptop, handcuffing her, taking her out of the house, and putting her in a car.
Hlukhovska’s name is not featured in the video and there is no information about the charges she faces and the reason for her detention, her sister Diana told CPJ. “There is no official statement that she was kidnapped, only the video.”
“From the first day and until today, we sent requests to everyone, but we did not receive any answers,” Diana told CPJ, adding that the family had reached out to the FSB and vladimir putin. “She is considered as a missing person.”  
Hlukhovska was working as a reporter with RIA-Melitopol before russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, her sister Diana told CPJ. As soon as the occupation started, Hlukhovska resigned, as she understood “from the very beginning” the risks her work entailed, Diana said.
CPJ’s email to the FSB requesting comment on both detentions received no response.
Many Ukrainian journalists have been detained in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. The whereabouts of former journalist Iryna Levchenko, missing since early May 2023, and of journalists Dmytro Khilyuk, detained in early March 2022, and Viktoria Roshchina, detained in early August 2023, are still unknown. russia was the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s 2023 prison census, with at least 22 journalists behind bars as of December 1. Hlukhovska and Levchenko were not included in the census due to the lack of publicly available information on their detention at the time, and due to a request by Hlukhovska’s family not to publish her story.

Congress Finally Gives Ukraine a Fighting Chance

After waiting six blood-drenched, anxious months as Russian rockets slammed into Ukrainian apartment buildings and hospitals, and moscow’s cutthroats made inroads across eastern Ukraine, lawmakers in Washington finally experienced a hopeful epiphany and voted to support $61 billion of military funding for Ukraine.

The wide range of weapons and other aid is now expected to give Ukrainian soldiers a fighting chance to halt Russia’s battlefield advances and perhaps even turn the war’s tide against the terrorist invader.

Just when you thought that the United States had abandoned its role as the champion of the still endangered former captive nations of russian subjugation, House speaker Mike Johnson, to the surprise and anger of his fellow Republicans, scheduled the vote on Saturday, April 20. In total, 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while 112 Republicans voted against it.

This victory will certainly buoy the expectations of the pro-Ukraine legislators but the number of opponents of aid will not dampen the hostility of pro-moscow  congressmen.

Supporters of Ukraine, a broad range of kindred spirits including Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and other Ukrainian American organizations and individuals had deluged the Capitol with letters, emails, petitions and telephone calls insisting that lawmakers support military funding for the benefit of Ukraine and the free world. For weeks, the campaign was hit or miss with Republican descendants of the GOP that had championed liberty for the captive nations vehemently opposing helping Ukraine defend itself against russian aggression. The leaders of the pro-russian cabal were Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who earned the monicker of Moscow Marjorie, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Ukrainian-born Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, who was chastised in Ukraine and the US for betraying her heritage. There were others but this trio was most adamant in opposing helping Ukraine.

After Ukraine aid was passed in the House, pro-Ukraine lawmakers exploded in tumultuous cheers of “Ukraine,” waving Ukrainian flags. Greene posted a video to X, denouncing her colleagues waving Ukrainian flags.

"Mike Johnson's House of Representatives so proud to work for Ukraine. Not the American people!!! It's despicable!" the congresswoman wrote Saturday afternoon.

That was not the extent of her anti-Ukraine fury. Demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge about Ukraine or her card-carrying affiliation with the Kremlin, Moscow Marjorie groundlessly denounced Ukraine of waging “a war against Christianity.” She continued: “The Ukrainian government is attacking Christians, the Ukrainian government is executing priests,” she said. “Russia is not doing that. They’re not attacking Christianity.” The same post-vote article in The Guardian appropriately pointed out that according to figures from the Institute for Religious Freedom Russia destroyed, damaged or looted at least 630 religious sites by December last year.

The Senate is expected to consider the foreign aid measures early next week, and President Biden is expected to sign the package.

Passage of Ukraine aid is also a major political slap in the face of former president Donald Trump. Trump has long criticized Ukraine while repeatedly sympathizing with russian leader vladmir putin, and has told advisers he would settle the war by letting russia keep the land it has already seized. He pushed to turn the Ukraine aid into a loan, prompting Republicans to include a loan requirement in Saturday’s legislation, with some caveats.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that he was “grateful” to the House, “both parties, and personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track.”

Officials in Kyiv echoed Zelenskyy’s gratitude and expressed relief after the House of Representatives approved $61 billion in aid to Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities were jubilant at the vote though their focus is shifting to how quickly assistance can get to the front line and how the package will change Kyiv’s fortunes in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

“The vital US aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

The Associated Press reported that the Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days after Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the US and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Ukraine desperately needs.

The foreign aid package passed on Saturday also includes:

● $26.4bn (£21.34bn) in military support for Israel, with $9.1bn (£7.36bn) of that allocated to humanitarian aid for Gaza;

● $8.1bn (£6.55bn) in funding for allies in the Asia-Pacific, including Taiwan, to counter communist China.

The decision on the bill, which also includes funds to help keep Ukraine’s government running, came after airstrikes hit several major cities in the past week, including Chernihiv and Dnipro, killing dozens of people. Ukraine, which is also running low on air defense, said the strikes could have been avoided if it had better supplies.

Thankfully, as Winston Churchill opined, you can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.

Until russia’s war against Ukraine is concluded with victory for Kyiv and evacuation of russian cutthroats this matter will certainly return to the halls of Congress for another round of acrimonious fighting between the forces for good and Moscow’s evil forces.