Leaders representing the Group of Seven nations are set to announce as soon as Thursday an agreement to loan money to Ukraine backed by the profits from frozen Russian investments, according to sources familiar with the discussions, providing a new source of revenue to a war-torn nation facing a steep and costly road to recovery, Report informs via CNN.
Negotiators had focused discussions on a loan amount of roughly $50 billion, a figure that would represent the annual proceeds on the investments – which generate profit of about EUR 3 billion per year – over the course of 10 years.
Western nations froze Russia’s assets in bank accounts located within Europe and the US as part of a massive wave of sanctions enacted after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Hundreds of billions of assets are frozen in Europe, with just a small amount – roughly $3 billion – located in banks in the US.
That led European officials to raise concerns that they could be on the hook if Ukraine failed to pay back the loan, the investments generated less profit, or the assets get delivered back to Russia as part of a peace deal.