Ukraine can receive $50 billion in loans — U.S. Treasury Secretary
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G7 countries could fund Ukraine's war efforts by providing billions in loans linked to $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Sky News on May 21.
She is pushing for an agreement to use the interest gained from the assets to fund Ukraine's recovery.
The total can amount to $50 billion, she said, adding that they would only be provided in the form of loans.
Yellen initially insisted on the complete confiscation of Russian assets — mostly euro-denominated, but her proposal faced opposition from EU officials on the grounds that such actions could pose a systemic risk to the single European currency.
“This is one way to do it,” Yellen noted.
“I understand that today the EU took the final step in approving a plan by which windfall profits earned on Russian assets in Euroclear will be directed to Ukraine. The plan will accelerate this flow of interest proceeds from assets that do not belong to Russia," she said.
The Russian assets are no longer interest-bearing, she said, "but they are generating returns for Euroclear," which could be "given to Ukraine, and that would be repaid for itself by that flow of interest in a few years."
Confiscation of Russian Assets
The USA and EU were jointly considering legal authority to direct $300 billion in Russian assets to Ukraine's reconstruction and other needs, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a bill to confiscate Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine to rebuild its infrastructure on Jan. 24.
Outlines of decisions necessary to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine are already being prepared, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Bill No. 8038 on the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine received the required number of votes to be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on April 20.
Ukraine may receive almost $8 billion as part of this procedure.
The bill must now be approved by the U.S. Senate.
EU ambassadors reached a preliminary agreement on May 8 to direct revenue generated by frozen Russian assets toward supporting Ukraine.
Estonian parliament adopted amendments to the law on sanctions on May 15, allowing the use of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine. Estonia became the first state in the world to adopt such a legal act.
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