‘The Clock Is Ticking’ – UK Warns Abramovich to Release £2.5B for Ukraine

The UK government said on Wednesday that it will take Russian oligarch Roman Abaramovich to court if he fails to act on his promise to use the proceeds of his sale of Chelsea FC to aid victims of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Abramovich sold the famous football club for £2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) after the UK government sanctioned him for his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2022. Since then, the funds have remained frozen in a UK bank account.

In a statement, the UK government said that it would consider “any proposal from Abramovich to voluntarily donate the multi-billion pounds of funds to the most vulnerable in Ukraine” – but none that he or other sanctioned individuals would benefit from.

For more than three years, Abramovich has retained some control over the proceeds of the sale by pledging to use them to benefit the victims of Russia’s war.

However, this raises an apparent questions

around the definition of “victim.”  The New York Times previously reported that “Abramovich wants the proceeds to benefit all the victims of the war, including Russian soldiers, as well as wanting it to go towards other charitable causes outside of Ukraine.”

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that “the clock is ticking on Abramovich to honor the commitment he made when Chelsea FC was sold and transfer the £2.5 billion to a humanitarian cause for Ukraine.”

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‘You Will Be Left to Suffer and Die’: Rutte Warns Young Russians Against Fighting in Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a stark appeal to young Russians not to fight in the war in Ukraine, saying they will be sent to the front with poor training, bad equipment and a high chance of being killed, wounded or abandoned. He backed his warning with NATO estimates that Russia is losing more than 30,000 soldiers a month – more in a single month than the Soviet Union lost during its entire 10-year war in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

“This government is prepared to enforce it through the courts so that every penny reaches those whose lives have been torn apart by Putin’s illegal war,” he added.

The UK government also said that it had issued a license that would “permit the transfer of over £2.5 billion to benefit the people of Ukraine suffering at the hands of Russian invasion.”

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called on Roman Abramovich to do “the right thing,” but said that if he failed to act then Britain would.

“It is time this money was used to rebuild the lives of people who’ve seen devastation as a result of Putin’s illegal war,” she said.

On Thursday and Friday, the leaders of the EU’s 27 member states will gather in Brussels to discuss how to finance Europe’s ongoing support for Ukraine – where they are expected to reach a decision on a proposed 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine backed by Russian assets frozen in Europe which has been in limbo for months.