FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Any European Union decision on using frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine must follow international law and the European Central Bank is “very attentive” to the process, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Monday.

The EU is searching for a way to finance Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction with some of the 210 billion euros worth of Russian sovereign assets immobilised in the West after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

As outright confiscation would be illegal, the bloc’s political leadership is working on a plan to invest the Russian cash in zero-coupon bonds issued by the European Commission with guarantees from EU governments.

The EU would then use the cash to issue a “Reparations Loan” to Ukraine.

“We very much expect that any scheme that is di

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