EU finance ministers to discuss leveraging Russian assets on June 5

European Union finance ministers will hold a videoconference on June 5 on a G7 proposal to leverage Russian central bank assets immobilized in the West to allow Kyiv swiftly to receive a loan of around $50 billion, senior euro zone officials said, Report informs referring to Reuters.

The size of the loan has not yet been agreed in the EU, the officials said, but the $50 billion was mentioned by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as a possible amount after a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers on 23-25 May in Italy.

The idea is that the money for Ukraine, struggling to buy weapons to fend off the Russian invasion, would be raised through a bond that could be backed by annual windfall profits generated by the $300 billion of Russian central bank assets frozen in the West after Moscow's attack on Ukraine in February 2022.

European officials have said that, while seizing the capital of the assets would be legally very risky, using the profits generated by the frozen capital is fine because the profits do not legally belong to Moscow.

"There is a lot of uncertainty about the potential modalities, but the key issue on the table is whether the EU would be open to some sort of concessional loan to Ukraine, based on future revenue stream from the frozen Russian assets," one senior euro zone official said.

European governments have already agreed to transfer profits of 2.5 to 3 billion euros ($2.7-3.3 billion) per year generated by the Russian assets to a special fund that would finance the purchase of weapons and also reconstruction of Ukraine.