Department of Justice (DOJ) is set to give $500,000 worth of forfeited Russian funds to Ukraine as the embattled country tries to fend off the Kremlin’s invasion.
The U.S. will transfer nearly half of a million dollars in confiscated Russian funds to Estonia, which will be then transferred to Ukraine, according to a Saturday DOJ press release. Estonia is receiving the funds first, since “under current authorities, the facts of this case do not allow for a direct transfer to Ukraine.”
The funds were forfeited by the U.S. “following the breakup of an illegal procurement network attempting to import into Russia a high-precision, U.S.-origin machine tool with uses in the defense and nuclear proliferation sectors.”