EU member states have been told that the Union has the legal authority to temporarily use at least €33,8 billion of frozen Russian central bank funds to help rebuild Ukraine, it announced today "Bloomberg", citing unnamed sources in Brussels.

The sources indicate that the Legal Service of the Council of the EU has informed the ambassadors of the Union that this is legally feasible, as long as the property is not expropriated and if certain conditions are met.

According to those sources, the use of the frozen funds of the Russian bank implies the determination of the date by which they will be used for the reconstruction of Ukraine, the provision of liquid funds, as well as the fact that the principal and interest must be returned to Russia at some point.

EU lawyers clarify that if there is a loss while the Union manages Russian funds, compensation will have to be provided through the Union's budget or by member states.

The EU is exploring the possibility of using frozen Russian assets that have been temporarily confiscated based on the sanctions the Union imposed on Russia over the attack on Ukraine, and discussions on the issue are only at an early stage.

The representatives of the EU and individual member states are concerned, because it is necessary to find a legal justification for such a move, especially for the use of the frozen funds of the Russian Central Bank.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Layen, said he wanted to make Russia pay for what it destroyed in the invasion with "the frozen assets of the oligarchs and the assets of its central bank."

Officials from the Group of Seven (G7) and the EU said there was no clear legal basis for simply confiscating Russian bank assets and diverting them to Ukraine.

Instead, as a first step, the EU is considering pooling funds at the EU or international level to generate revenue that could be used to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine - a task that the World Bank has estimated could cost at least 350 billions of dollars.

According to some estimates, the funds of the Russian central bank frozen abroad amount to 300 billion dollars.

EU officials estimate that around 33,8 billion euros are deposits in the Union, although estimates are still being made about the amount.