The Group of Seven countries and the European Union are considering how to use the profits generated by Russian assets immobilized in the West to provide Ukraine with a large loan now and secure Kiev’s financing by 2025.
About €260 billion ($283 billion) of Russian central bank funds have been frozen worldwide, most of it in the EU. The funds generate €2.5 billion to €3.5 billion a year in profits, which the EU says is not contractually owed to Russia and is therefore a windfall. The idea, championed by the United States, is to use these profits as a steady income stream to pay off a large $50 billion loan that could be raised on the market. Russia says any diversion of profits from its frozen funds would amount to theft.
Senior European officials say an agreement to go ahead with such a loan at a June 13-15 summit of the G7 – the US, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany and Italy – would send a strong signal of unity behind Kiev in terms of the economy. eve of an international conference on Ukraine in Switzerland. It would also ensure Kiev has funding for all of 2025, regardless of who wins the US presidential election on November 5.
