Fund Ukraine's War Effort by Confiscating Russian Government Assets

There is a strong moral and pragmatic case for seizing Russian state assets and using them to fund Ukraine 's defense.

Most of this wealth is located in European Union nations, but about $5 billion is in the US .

The funds should be deployed as soon as possible to help bring the war to an end and finance Ukraine 's reconstruction.

There could still be a slippery slope with respect to property owned by foreign governments.

But that is mitigated by the strong incentives governments have to maintain good relations with allies and trading partners.

It's unlikely that Western nations will start systematically confiscating foreign states' assets outside of extreme cases like that posed by Russia 's assault on Ukraine .