G7 states have agreed to lend Ukraine 50 billion U.S. dollars using money generated from frozen Russian state assets, diplomats said on Thursday at the first day of G7 summit in Italy.
War-ravaged Ukraine is to use the loan package to strengthen its military defence against Russia, pay for the reconstruction of infrastructure and funding for Ukraine’s state budget.
The U.S. government says around 280 billion U.S. dollars of Russian central bank money has been immobilised in Western countries due to sanctions imposed since the full-scale Russian attack on Ukraine more than two years ago.
The bulk of the money is within the European Union.
The bloc’s member states recently approved the use of interest income generated from Russian state assets to finance aid for Ukraine.
The Brussels-based financial institution Euroclear, by far the largest holder in the EU of frozen Russian central bank assets – recently said that it had collected around 4.4 billion euros (4.7 billion U.S. dollars) in interest in 2023.
Planning for the structure of the loan package has been under way for months.
The United States had originally campaigned in favour of collecting not only the interest income, but also the frozen assets themselves and using them to provide financial support to Kiev.
Some European capitals, however, had major reservations about this.
G7 leaders are meeting for a summit in southern Italy from Thursday to Saturday. (dpa/NAN)
