The European Union (EU), the United States, Japan and Canada, after Moscow’s repeated invasion of Ukraine in 2022, froze the assets of the Russian central bank in the amount of approximately 300 billion US dollars. About 200 billion dollars of these funds are located in European financial institutions, mainly in the Belgian clearing house “Euroclear”.
The G7 countries – Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy – together with the EU agreed in June to provide Ukraine with about 50 billion dollars of financing in the form of a loan, which will be secured and repaid with the proceeds from the frozen Russian assets.
EU Justice Commissioner Didier Randers said the G7 countries could announce the extent of their contribution at a meeting in Washington on Friday.
EU officials explained that the bloc’s loan amount is up to 35 billion euros, but it could decrease depending on how much other countries offer.
This funding plan for Ukraine will replace the existing EU scheme, under which Kyiv was awarded $1.7 billion in July.
But implementation of the plan has been delayed as the United States demanded guarantees from the EU that Russian assets would remain frozen. Currently, EU member states must agree to extend the asset freeze every six months, and Hungary rejected a proposal to extend the period to 36 months, saying it wanted to wait until the US presidential election in November.
Apart from the mentioned plan for financing in the form of a loan, since the beginning of the repeated Russian invasion, the EU and its member states have provided Kyiv with support in the amount of approximately 120 billion euros.
Source: www.diena.lv
