G7 leaders meeting in Italy reached a “political agreement” on Thursday to use interest generated by frozen Russian assets to release $50 billion for Ukraine, a White House official said. .
“We have a political agreement at the highest level (…) and 50 billion dollars will be devoted to Ukraine,” declared a senior American administration official on condition of anonymity.
This $50 billion loan for kyiv will be guaranteed by future interest earned on fixed Russian assets, which amount to 300 billion euros generating up to three billion euros in revenue per year.
The United States is “willing to lend up to $50 billion to ensure the $50 billion target is met, but there will be other lenders, meaning the true US figure is lower,” he said. he explained.
“This is a solidarity loan,” he stressed. “We will share the risk, because we share the commitment to get this done.”
The share of each country in this loan is not yet known. “I am not going to speak for the other delegations, it is up to them to say if they will contribute,” he added.
After advocating a pure and simple confiscation of Russian assets, which was legally risky, the United States agreed with the European position of using only the interest generated by the frozen assets.
These assets are mainly found in the European Union: around 185 billion euros were frozen by Euroclear, an international fund deposit organization established in Belgium. This gives preponderant weight to Europe over the use of Russian assets.
The rest is mainly shared between the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
