BARI: The G7 leaders at a summit in Italy on Thursday agreed on a new $50 billion loan for Ukraine using profits from frozen Russian assets, said a US official.
“We have political agreement at the highest levels for this deal,” a senior Biden administration official said on condition of anonymity. The official added $50 billion to be committed to Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Thursday commenced two days of talks in Puglia, southern Italy.
Enhancing support for Ukraine was top of the agenda, with President Volodymyr Zelensky attending the G7 summit for a special session on Thursday.
Earlier this year, the EU agreed to use the profits from the interest on Russian central bank assets seized by Western allies after Moscow’s February 2022 war against Ukraine to help Kyiv.
However, the idea at the G7 is to use this amount to provide more and faster help through a big loan.
The loan would be repaid eventually with future profits, although there is a risk that the funding dries up if the assets are unfrozen under any peace deal.
The official said the US was ready to partially contribute to the agreed financial support to Ukraine. “We will not be the only lenders. This will be a loan syndicate. We’re going to share the risk because we have a shared commitment to get this done,” the official said.
He would not disclose how much or even if the other G7 countries would contribute. He said the United States will not be the only lender in the syndicate.
