ROME (Reuters) – Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations have reached consensus on how to deliver around $50 billion in loans to Ukraine backed by the earnings from frozen Russian sovereign assets, a statement said on Friday.
“These loans will be serviced and repaid by future flows of extraordinary revenues stemming from the immobilization of Russian Sovereign Assets,” the G7 statement said.
“Our aim is to begin disbursing the funds by the end of the year,” said the statement, which was released as global finance chiefs were meeting in Washington for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings.
The G7 leaders agreed during their annual summit in southern Italy in June to provide loans to be backed by interest accrued from the blocked Russian funds, but left many technical details to be hammered out.
Some 260 billion euros ($280.62 billion) in Russian assets such as central bank reserves were frozen under sanctions imposed following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The vast majority of those assets are held in Euroclear, a Belgium-based central securities depository, making the European Union a key player in any plan to make use of the assets.
“The G7 remains steadfast in its solidarity to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom, and its recovery and reconstruction,” the G7 statement said, adding that “time is not on (Russian) President Putin’s side.”
($1 = 0.9265 euros)
(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Writing by Sara Rossi; Editing by Paul Simao)
