Russia warns of action if West uses its assets

STRESA/MOSCOW/KYIV — Russia will reciprocate with mirror measures if Western countries illegally use its assets, TASS news agency cited Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov as saying on Saturday.

"It has always seemed that the property of other countries, including central banks' gold and foreign currency reserves, are a taboo not covered by any sanctions at all. The ideology has changed by now as no fundamentals, no legal foundations are effective for Western countries," he said.

"In case of a decision we will act similarly, with mirror measures. So we have an answer," he added.

Finance chiefs from the Group of Seven countries said on Saturday that G7 will explore ways to use the future income from frozen Russian assets to boost funding for Ukraine but offered no details.

"We are making progress in our discussions on potential avenues to bring forward the extraordinary profits stemming from immobilized Russian sovereign assets to the benefit of Ukraine," the G7 ministers said at the end of a meeting in northern Italy.

The United States has been pushing its G7 partners to back a loan that could provide Kyiv with as much as $50 billion in the near term.

However, the cautious wording of the statement, containing no figures or details, reflects many legal and technical aspects that need hammering out before such a loan could be issued, Reuters reported.

The issue will now be discussed by G7 leaders at a summit in southern Italy in mid-June.

"We are not yet ready to find further and clear measures to finance Ukraine, but this is now a topic of intensive work," German Finance Minister Christian Lindner told reporters.

On the battlefront, Russia said on Saturday it had captured another village in the Donetsk region, while Kyiv said Moscow was intensifying attacks away from the northeastern Kharkiv region.

The Russian defense ministry said troops had "taken control of the village of Arkhangelske", located to the north of the city of Donetsk.

It came as Ukraine has said Moscow is intensifying attacks away from the Kharkiv region, where it launched an offensive on May 10.

Ukraine's General Staff said on Saturday that Russian forces were "particularly active" near the town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. Fights were ongoing near the villages of Kalynove, Yasnobrodivka and Sokil, south of the village of Arkhangelske.

On Saturday, Ukraine said its forces had repelled two attacks in the Kharkiv region and fighting was continuing near the town of Vovchansk.

Russia's defense ministry said its troops had fought off two counterattacks near the border, one close to Vovchansk.

Agencies Via Xinhua