G7 Countries Agree to Provide Ukraine with $50 Billion Loan
G7 countries have agreed to provide Ukraine with a $50 billion loan, which will be repaid through interest from frozen Russian assets. This agreement was officially confirmed by Italian Prime Minister Giorga Meloni during the G7 summit.
Details of the Loan Agreement
«We have reached a political agreement on providing additional financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of approximately $50 billion by the end of this year through a loan, the repayment of which will come from additional income from Russian assets frozen in our jurisdictions,» Meloni told journalists.
«We are not talking about confiscating these assets, but about the interest from them, which will then accumulate,» emphasized the Italian leader.
US Proposal and Plan Implementation
The proposal to help Ukraine in this way was put forward by the US administration. The essence of the plan is that Ukraine will receive $50 billion from allies now, and the loan repayment will be made through interest from frozen Russian gold and currency reserves totaling around 300 billion euros.
Simply confiscating Russian assets and transferring them to Ukraine by Western allies was deemed too complicated and legally questionable. As previously explained by the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, such a step risks «breaking the international order… that we would like Russia to respect.»
Support from G7 Countries
On Thursday, an anonymous US administration official told journalists that initially the United States was willing to provide the entire $50 billion on its own, but then other G7 countries also expressed readiness to participate.
The leaders of the G7 countries rushed to approve this decision before the possible rise to power of Donald Trump and ultra-right forces in France.