More countries agree on confiscating Russian property says PM

An increasing number of countries approve of confiscating Russian-owned property as it is a huge financial resource, Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister said in Brussels on Friday.

Morawiecki told reporters after taking part in an extraordinary summit of the European Council "the most important thing for us is an end to the war in Ukraine and a good, honest and just peace that will show that Ukraine was victorious and Russia was defeated."

"This is extremely important, because at stake today are security and development in the coming decades," said the prime minister. "Among the most powerful instruments in the hands of the European Council (EC) are packages of sanctions and property confiscation."

He added that, during the EC's plenary session and during bilateral talks, he had spoken very strongly in favour of the confiscation of Russian property.

"I can see that more and more countries are in agreement on this," he said. "And this is a huge financial resource, a gigantic financial resource, some USD 300 billion to USD 400 billion, a billion euros, that could be used to lower the prices of gas and electricity, and to lower inflation throughout the EU, and in Poland and, of course, to assist to Ukraine." 

Morawiecki added out that "in this dispute about values, about real actions which are difficult at this time from an economic, political and geopolitical point of view, our voice not only got through, but it can be said that it was listened to very carefully."