G7 leaders reached an agreement to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.
Leaders will provide Ukraine with an undisclosed loan, using the assets as security.
While the total amount of the loan is unclear, the Biden administration has committed to $50 billion.
An administration official told The Epoch Times that Russia will pay the loan under the G7 agreement. “The income comes from the interest stream on the immobilized assets, and that’s the only fair way to be repaid,” the official said. “The principle is untouched for now. But we have full optionality to seize the principal later if the political will is there.”
The loan payout is contingent upon the “pace at which Ukraine can absorb the money effectively,” the official added.
Funds will reportedly be used for humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky celebrated the agreement on X. He wrote that the “substantive discussions” will “undoubtedly have tangible positive results – not only political, but also economic and social – when all agreements reached by leaders are put into practice.”
“Together we bring a just peace and strengthen our positions. We have signed security agreements with all G7 countries after signing them today with the United States and Japan,” Zelensky added. “This forms the basis of a new security architecture for Ukraine. I am grateful to the G7 nations for their constant and consistent support.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that theft “will not go unpunished,” according to Reuters.
“Now it is becoming obvious to all countries, companies (and) sovereign funds that their assets and reserves are far from safe in both the legal and economic sense of the word,” he noted during a meeting with Foreign Ministry officials. “Anyone could be next in line for expropriation by the U.S. and the West.”
Prior to the G7 agreement, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan shared that the United States implemented measures to “intensify the pressure on Russia.”
Around 300 new sanctions were authorized, primarily targeting “Russian financial infrastructure,” Sullivan stated.
“[T]he targets for those include Russian financial infrastructure, including major non-bank entities that help Russia finance its war effort and evade sanctions; entities and individuals across multiple evasion and foreign procurement networks, like networks that support Russia’s UAV production, gold laundering, and procurement of sensitive items like anti-UAV equipment, machine tools, industrial materials, and micro- — microelectronics,” he explained.
