This idea would be a major step forward from the EU’s recently agreed plan to use most of the profits generated from Russian assets frozen in Europe, about €3 billion a year, to buy weapons for Ukraine. Leaders of the G7 group of advanced economies aim to find agreement on using assets for a loan at a summit later this month.
“Those windfall profits [generated on assets immobilized in the EU] would be
used to finance the principal and interest for a loan to Ukraine supported by
the EU budget,” the confidential document drawn up in Brussels said.
The original plan, which finance ministers of the G7 gave a cautious welcome to at a meeting last month, would see the U.S., or G7 countries jointly, securing the loan for Kyiv, while using the profits of the Russian assets mainly held in Europe to pay back the interest on it.
The U.S. signaled the size of the loan should be $50 billion, but the amount hasn’t been agreed yet. Washington’s idea would be for the frozen assets to be used to pay back the remaining share of the loan after the end of the war.
While Washington initially suggested the U.S. would issue the loan to Ukraine with Europeans guaranteeing the funding, EU officials privately dismissed the idea.
EU believes US will look at plan favorably
Over two years since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the U.S. has been pushing its European allies to look into alternative ways to raise cash for Kyiv amid fears that existing funds will run out as early as next year.
