Nobel Laureates call for using Russian sanctioned state assets to recover and compensate Ukraine

3 March, 2025

On 24 February 2025, the unlawful war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine […] entered its fourth year. The fighting has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and left many severely wounded on both sides. However, it also directly targets the Ukrainian civilian population – families and their children – who have endured immeasurable suffering. 

Thousands of civilians, including children, have been killed, are under occupation, have been imprisoned or forcefully deported to Russia. The destruction of entire neighbourhoods and cities, along with despicable attacks on critical infrastructure such as hospitals, schools and kindergartens, has forced countless people to flee, violently robbed of their homes and livelihoods.

The Russian war on Ukraine caused the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, with millions of civilians displaced internally and outside of Ukraine. People and families have experienced unimaginable pain, loss, and hardship. 

Following the change of power resulting from the U.S. presidential election, promises and calls for negotiations and peace agreements are growing louder. Hope may rise that this relentless war may come to an end through fair peace talks. Yet even if that happens, Ukraine remains a country devastated in many areas. The dead cannot be brought back, and the suffering endured in the past cannot be undone. But the future can and must be better.

The reconstruction of Ukraine and compensation of war victims will require substantial financial resources. And who, if not the perpetrator of this unlawful war, should bear responsibility for restitution? 

In total, there is currently a worldwide capital of the Russian Central Bank of an estimated €300 billion frozen as a result of sanctions. This amount is held in accounts worldwide, but mainly in the EU and G7 countries, namely Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United States and the United Kingdom. This money continues to generate additional billions through interest. However, the interest alone will not cover the estimated approximately US$486 billion in recovery costs, nor the compensation owed to victims of Russia’s war — only using the principal of the €300 billion will. 

We, the Nobel Laureates who have signed this appeal, call on these governments to release these funds from the Russian Central Bank to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine and compensation of war victims so that the country can be rapidly rebuilt after a peace agreement is reached. This might require new regulations and laws, which, given the undeniable emergency and gross violations of international law, are appropriate and must be amended. The goal is to end the war, establish a just peace, and provide Ukraine with a future perspective for generations to come. We stand by this cause with our voices. 

The signatories, by category:

Peace

Belo, Carlos Filipe Ximenes (1996)
Ebadi, Shirin (2003)
Gbowee, Leymah Roberta (2011)
Matviichuk, Oleksandra (2022)
Sanchez, Oscar Arias (1987)
Walesa, Lech (1983)
Williams, Jody (1997)

Literature

Jelinek, Elfriede (2004)
Modiano, Patrick (2014)
Muller, Herta (2009)
Pamuk, Orhan (2006)
Soyinka, Wole (1986)

Economics

Acemoglu, Daron (2024)
Diamond, Peter A. (2010)
Hart, Sir Oliver (2016)
Heckman, James J. (2000)
Johnson, Simon (2024)
Kydland, Finn E. (2004)
Maskin, Eric S. (2007)
Myerson, Roger B. (2007)
Phelps, Edmund S. (2006)
Pissarides, Christopher A. (2010)
Roth, Alvin E. (2012)
Smith, Vernon L. (2002)
Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2001)

Chemistry

Agre, Peter (2003)
Bawendi, Moungi G. (2023)
Charpentier, Emmanuelle (2020)
Ciechanover, Aaron (2004)
Corey, Elias James (1990)
Deisenhofer, Johann (1988)
Doudna, Jennifer A. (2020)
Ertl, Gerhard (2007)
Feringa, Bernard L. (2016)
Frank, Joachim (2017)
Heeger, Alan (2000)
Henderson, Richard (2017)
Hoffmann, Roald (1981)
Huber, Robert (1988)
Kobilka, Brian K. (2012)
Kornberg, Roger D. (2006)
Lee, Yuan T. (1986)
Lefkowitz, Robert J. (2012)
Lehn, Jean-Marie (1987)
Levitt, Michael (2013)
List, Benjamin (2021)
MacKinnon, Roderick (2003)
MacMillan, David W. C. (2021)
Meldal, Morten (2022)
Modrich, Paul L. (2015)
Moerner, William E. (2014)
Polanyi, John C. (1986)
Ramakrishnan, Venkatraman (2009)
Sauvage, Jean-Pierre (2016)
Schrock, Richard R. (2005)
Whittingham, Sir M. Stanley (2019)
Yonath, Ada E. (2009)

Medicine

Alter, Harvey J. (2020)
Ambros, Victor (2024)
Baltimore, David (1975)
Bishop, J. Michael (1989)
Campbell, William C. (2015)
Capecchi, Mario R. (2007)
Doherty, Peter C. (1996)
Greider, Carol W. (2009)
Hall, Jeffrey Connor (2017)
Hoffmann, Jules A. (2011)
Horvitz, H. Robert (2002)
Houghton, Sir Michael A. (2020)
Hunt, Tim (2001)
Ignarro, Louis J. (1998)
Kandel, Eric R. (2000)
Marshall, Barry J. (2005)
Mello, Craig C. (2006)
Moser, Edvard (2014)
Moser, May-Britt (2014)
Nusslein-Volhard, Christiane (1995)
O’Keefe, John (2014)
Prusiner, Stanley B. (1997)
Ratcliffe, Sir Peter J. (2019)
Rice, Charles M. (2020)
Roberts, Sir Richard J. (1993)
Rosbash, Michael (2017)
Sakmann, Bert (1991)
Schekman, Randy W. (2013)
Semenza, Gregg L. (2019)
Sharp, Phillip A. (1993)
Szostak, Jack W. (2009)
Tonegawa, Susumu (1987)
Varmus, Harold E. (1989)
Weissman, Drew (2023)
Wieschaus, Eric F. (1995)
Wiesel, Torsten N. (1981)

Physics

Agostini, Pierre (2023)
Amano, Hiroshi (2014)
Aspect, Alain (2022)
Barish, Barry Clark (2017)
Bednorz, J. Georg (1987)
Binnig, Gerd (1986)
Chu, Steven (1997)
Englert, Francois (2013)
Fert, Albert (2007)
Friedman, Jerome I. (1990)
Genzel, Reinhard (2020)
Glashow, Sheldon (1979)
Gross, David J. (2004)
Haroche, Serge (2012)
Hinton, Geoffrey E. (2024)
Hooft, Gerardus ’t (1999)
Josephson, Brian D. (1973)
Kajita, Takaaki (2015)
Ketterle, Wolfgang (2001)
Krausz, Ferenc (2023)
L’Huillier, Anne (2023)
Mather, John C. (2006)
Mayor, Michel (2019)
Mourou, Gerard (2018)
Peebles, James (2019)
Penrose, Roger (2020)
Phillips, William D. (1997)
Politzer, H. David (2004)
Strickland, Donna (2018)
Taylor Jr., Joseph H. (1993)
Thorne, Kip Stephen (2017)
Tsui, Daniel C. (1998)
Weiss, Rainer (2017)
Wilson, Robert Woodrow (1978)
Wineland, David J. (2012)