G7 leaders reportedly agree to provide $50 billion to Ukraine at the expense of frozen Russian assets
The leaders of the Group of Seven agreed to provide Ukraine with a loan of $50 billion by the end of the year, attracting profits from frozen Russian assets, reported Le Monde with reference to AFP.
On the eve of the США, Японія, Німеччина, Британія, Франція, Італія, КанадаG7 summit in Italy, which will be held on June 13 and will focus on supporting Ukraine, a representative of the French president confirmed that the leaders have agreed on the use of profits from blocked Russian assets.
More context
The G7 countries want to use the profit from the interest on the frozen assets of the Russian central bank as collateral for a $50 billion loan to Ukraine. Currently, about $325 billion remain blocked, AFP reports.
US President Joe Biden plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on June 17, where he may announce the granting of a loan.
According to an AFP source from the Macron administration, it was initially an American initiative. He explained that the loan to Ukraine is planned to be repaid with "proceeds from frozen Russian assets."
However, if for one reason or another the Russian assets will be unblocked or the proceeds will not be enough to finance the loan, then "we will have to think about how to distribute the burden," the source added.
Frozen assets of the Russian Federation
At the end of January 2024, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine announced that the EU was accumulating frozen Russian assets and could transfer excess profits from them to Ukraine, namely Russian assets worth 260 billion euros, 210 billion of which are frozen in Belgium and Luxembourg.
On March 19, Bloomberg reported that the European Union had prepared a law that would allow Ukraine to receive profits from the frozen assets of the Russian Federation as early as July.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, plans to offer EU countries to use 90% of the income from Russian assets frozen in the European Union for military support of Ukraine.
Dmytro Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, stated that the withdrawal of revenues from frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine would lead to "inevitable losses" for the European Union and threatened "trials for decades."