Moscow could retaliate if Germany seizes Russian assets to help Ukraine

Moscow could retaliate with similar measures if Germany decides to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild, a senior Russian official warned on Thursday.

"The German government has decided to shift the problems that their predecessors created onto our country. To this end, they plan to confiscate Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine," said Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament.

"We have the right to take similar actions in relation to assets of Germany and other states," he said in a Telegram post.

Volodin said European countries, particularly Germany and France, "will pay for what is happening in Ukraine."

"Not just because their economies are the strongest in the EU. It is (former German Chancellor Angela) Merkel and (former French President Francois) Hollande who, having sabotaged the Minsk agreements, are recognized by the world community as the perpetrators of the conflict in Ukraine," he said.

By admitting that the Minsk agreements were used to "militarize the Kyiv regime and prepare it for military operations against civilians in Donbas and Crimea," Merkel proved that her and Hollande "deceived the international community," Volodin asserted.

He was referring to Merkel's comments in a German media interview last month, where she said the deals brokered by France and Germany in 2014 and 2015 were only meant to buy Ukraine some time to become stronger.