Washington and its allies could give Kiev a loan based on profits from blocked funds, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said
The US and its allies are nearing agreement on plans to provide Ukraine with a multibillion-dollar loan which would be linked to profits accrued from frozen Russian sovereign assets, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said.
The proposal comes as Washington and its G7 allies – the UK, Canada, France, Italy, and Japan – are seeking ways to urgently unlock more funding for Kiev, Yellen told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.
According to Yellen, the US has been discussing with other G7 members the possibility of giving Ukraine a loan “allowing the windfall profits [from Russian assets] to be used” to pay it off. This approach, she said, “seems to be commanding considerable support.”
The flow of windfall profits earned on the immobilized Russian assets amounts to around $3-$5 billion per year, the treasury secretary said.
“So we’re hopeful that this can be worked into something to be presented to the leaders at the upcoming G7 meeting [in Italy in mid-June],” Yellen added.
The West has frozen roughly $300 billion in Russian sovereign funds since the start of the Ukraine conflict. Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear holds around €191 billion ($207 billion) of that amount, and has accrued nearly €4.4 billion ($4.7 billion) in interest over the past year.
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