Yatsenyuk waits for return of $1.5 bln stolen by Yanukovych's allies

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is waiting that $1.5 billion stolen by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's allies will be returned to the national budget, and then it will be spent on the maintenance and modernization of the army and improvement in social standards.

I hope that the law enforcement system and the judiciary will do their utmost so that the assets stolen from the people of Ukraine could be returned to the budget, and this resource will be used to pay allowances and modernize the army and raise social standards," Yatsenyuk said during the "10 Minutes with the Prime Minister" weekly program broadcast by major TV channels on Sunday evening.

He said that the government had increased the funding of the security and defense sectors by UAH 16 billion to UAH 113 billion in 2016 with a simultaneous increase in salaries and allowances paid to military personnel.

Another source for further increase in the maintenance of the military in addition to economic growth is the seizure of assets illegally earned by the former regime. And such seizures are foreseen by the law on the national budget. "The government has no right to seize [assets], impose sentences, make someone liable for crimes, but the government has the right to freeze assets after a financial investigation has been conducted," he said.

Last year the government took advantage of this right, and $ 1.5 billion in assets belonging to the former regime was frozen. "But until now, there has been neither a court ruling nor the seizure of those assets in favor of the state budget of Ukraine. No court verdict [on this case] has been passed in the past year and a half," he added.

Yatsenyuk said he had met with the chiefs of the Prosecutor General's Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and law enforcement agencies. He expressed hope that the case would get moving after the meeting.

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