G7 aims to tap income from US$300 billion frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine

The US has been pushing its G7 partners to back a loan that could provide Ukraine with as much as US$50 billion in the near term

The G7 also calls on Israel to maintain banking links between Israeli and Palestinian banks to allow vital transactions to continue

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Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors gather ahead of their two-day meeting in Stresa, Italy. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 6:36pm, 25 May 2024

The G7 will explore ways of using the future income from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, according to a draft statement of finance chiefs from the Group of Seven industrial democracies.

The G7 and its allies froze some US$300 billion of Russian assets shortly after Moscow invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

“We are making progress in our discussions on potential avenues to bring forward the extraordinary profits stemming from immobilised Russian sovereign assets to the benefit of Ukraine,” the draft statement said on Saturday.

G7 negotiators have been discussing for weeks how to best exploit the assets, such as major currencies and government bonds, which are mostly held in European-based depositories.

The United States has been pushing its G7 partners – Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada – to back a loan that could provide Kyiv with as much as US$50 billion in the near term.

The cautious wording of the statement, containing no figures or details, reflects numerous legal and technical aspects which still need to be hammered out before such a loan could be issued.