The French government backed a US proposal to tap frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s benefit, raising the prospect of a deal this week at a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers.

UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps accused China of working to provide Russia with combat equipment in Ukraine.

Ukraine accuses former Zelensky aide of illicit enrichment

Ukraine’s anti-graft authority notified a former deputy head of Volodymyr Zelensky’s office he was suspected of illicit enrichment, as pressure grows on the president to show results in the fight against corruption.

A former deputy chief of the presidential staff acquired assets worth more than 10 times his income and savings, and hid them under his brother’s name, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau said. The bureau didn’t name the man, saying only that he held the job from 2019 to 2024.

The official in question is Andriy Smyrnov, according to a person in law enforcement with knowledge of the investigation. Smyrnov, who worked for Zelensky’s powerful Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak for four years, was dismissed in March under presidential decree, without a reason being given. Smyrnov had been appointed under Yermak’s predecessor, Andriy Bohdan, who was fired in 2020 amid criticism for links with the now-detained tycoon Igor Kolomoisky.

Smyrnov didn’t reply to a text message from Bloomberg News.

Zelensky was propelled to office in 2019 on a pledge to root out endemic corruption that eroded Ukraine’s economy for three decades since the Soviet Union collapsed. Moscow’s invasion has made the issue more urgent as international donors have demanded progress while they dispatch tens of billions to keep the war-battered economy afloat and provide weapons to the frontline. In late April, Ukraine’s agriculture minister, Mykola Solskyi, became the first Cabinet member under Zelensky’s presidency to be detained before being bailed.

Read more: Ukraine detains first minister in Zelensky’s graft crackdown

The accused ex-official’s purchases, estimated to cost 17.1 million hryvnia ($430,000), included an apartment in Lviv, a land lot in Zakarpattya in western Ukraine, two cars, two motorcycles and three parking places in Kyiv, the anti-corruption bureau said. He tried to conceal them by transferring most of those assets to his brother while retaining the right to use them.

The purchases were worth more than $600,000 before the depreciation of the currency triggered by the full-scale invasion.

France aims for G7 deal on Russian assets after US proposal

The French government backed a US proposal to tap frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s benefit, raising the prospect of a deal this week at a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers.

The US is pushing for the group of leading advanced economies to leverage future revenue generated from about $280-billion in Russian central bank funds — most of which lies immobilised in Europe. The plan could unlock an aid package of as much as $50-billion for Ukraine.

“We are open to the idea of mobilising the income of these assets as best as possible and as much in advance as possible within international law,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in a briefing to journalists before the G7 meeting in Stresa, Italy.

European governments had previously been cautious about how to use the assets, citing concerns of legal risks and financial stability. Le Maire said he has previously warned US authorities that seizing assets outright would contravene international law and the rules of the global financial system.

“The US has made proposals that are in the framework of international law and we will work on them in a constructive and open way with the objective to get an agreement on this fundamental subject of financial support for Ukraine by the end of the Stresa G7,” the finance minister said.

With Germany also warming to the US plan, the chances are increasing that it could be fully endorsed by a meeting of G7 leaders on 13-15 June 13-15.

China and Russia ‘collaborating’ on Ukraine combat gear, says UK

UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps accused China of working to provide Russia with combat equipment in Ukraine.

Shapps made the remarks in a speech at a defence conference in London, in which he suggested that trade growth between the two neighbours had expanded into items with more obvious military applications.

“Today, I can reveal that we have evidence that Russia and China are collaborating on combat equipment for use in Ukraine,” Shapps said on Wednesday, adding, “They’re covering each other’s back.”

The US has warned China over its trade with Russia, threatening to sanction banks that prop up the Kremlin’s war machine. Nonetheless, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged during a visit by Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin earlier this month to expand cooperation with Moscow to push back against what they said were US efforts at containment.

Schapps warned in his speech that Russia and China, as well as Iran and North Korea, had “increasingly been working together”, urging Nato members to “wake up” and boost defence spending. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced last month this month that the UK would outlay on defence to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2030, compared with 2.3% now.

Russia pulls notice of Baltic Sea border plan that raised alarm

A Russian Defence Ministry proposal to change the country’s Baltic Sea border and territorial waters next to Nato rivals that prompted sharp responses from Lithuania and Finland was removed from a government website without explanation.

The document, which had been published for public discussion, said the ministry wanted to adjust coordinates for points at which it calculated Russia’s territorial waters and referenced a 1985 document passed by the Soviet Union to justify the proposal. The regulatory website said on Wednesday the project had been deleted.

Before its removal, three major Russian news wires carried a statement from an unnamed “military-diplomatic source” denying that Moscow had any plans to revise the state border in the Baltic or revise its territorial waters. They didn’t explain why the document had been published.

Russia’s Baltic neighbours reacted furiously to the document’s original publication. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later denied any political intent, though he didn’t disown the document and said Russia was obliged to take “appropriate steps” to ensure its security. DM