Russian earnings from gas and oil transport to EU should be directed to humanitarian aid to Ukraine, – Centre for Defence Reforms

Due to the inability of complete turndown of the import of Russian oil and gas to the EU, proceeds from sales should be involuntarily used for the purchase of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. For this purpose, a special settlement account must be set up under UN control.

This was stated by the Head of the Centre of Defense Reforms, the coordinator of the interdepartmental platform on hybrid threat countermeasures, which operates in the context of Ukraine-NATO cooperation, Mr. Oleksandr V. Danylyuk.

"It is quite clear that the sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation are unable to stop the invasion. Therefore, the "oil and gas in exchange for medical and food supplies" regime should be brought into action. Energy commodities are one of the key export articles that supply the Russian state budget during the war. While it is relatively possible to introduce an embargo for Russian oil, the EU can"t easily reject the import of Russian gas from a technical perspective. Thus, the most preferable measure is to limit the use of gas sales revenue" – he commented.

"A special settlement account should be set up under the UN control and should be used by Russia only for humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, in particular for the purchase of food and medical supplies. There should be no way that Russian Federation utilizes these funds to purchase military technologies or any other settlements" – Mr. Danylyuk summarized.

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