The French Presidency stated on Wednesday that Group of Seven leaders have agreed to assist Ukraine with $50 billion in frozen Russian assets by the end of the year.
Ahead of a G7 summit in Italy on Thursday that will focus on backing Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s invasion, a French Presidency official noted, “We have an agreement”.
G7 leaders had hoped to get an agreement on utilizing the profits from the interest on 300 billion euros ($325 billion) of frozen Russian central bank assets to assist Kyiv, with the profits serving as collateral for a loan of up to $50 billion.
US President Joe Biden will meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday at the G7 summit in Puglia, Italy.
“Originally this was an American initiative”, the French Presidency official continued, adding that in theory the loan to Ukraine would be returned with the proceeds from the frozen Russian assets.
The official went on to say, “But if for some reason or another, if the Russian assets are unfrozen or the proceeds from the Russian assets are not enough to finance the loan, then we’ll have to consider how to share the load of the loan”.
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