For more than a year, officials from multiple countries have debated the legality of confiscating the money and sending it to Ukraine.Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies have agreed to engineer a $50 billion loan to help Ukraine in its fight for survival that would use interest earned on profits from
A French official said that while the loan would be mostly U.S.-guaranteed, it could be “topped up” with European money or other national contributions.For more than a year, officials from multiple countries have debated the legality of confiscating the money and sending it to Ukraine.The U.S. and its allies immediately froze whatever Russian central bank assets they had access to when Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022 — basically, money being held in banks outside Russia.
Separately, the U.S. earlier this year passed a law called the REPO Act — short for the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act — that allows the Biden administration to seize $5 billion in Russian state assets located in the U.S. and use them for the benefit of Kyiv. That arrangement is still being worked out.But U.S.
The move to unlock Russia's assets comes after there was a long delay by the U.S. Congress in approving military aid for Ukraine.