Ukraine has received its first $1 billion tranche from a $20 billion loan backed by revenue from frozen Russian assets, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“We expect that all sovereign Russian assets will be confiscated and used for Ukraine’s reconstruction,” the prime minister added.
The U.S. government announced the $20 billion loan on December 10. Rather than direct transfers, the funds are being routed to Ukraine through a special World Bank fund.
Sovereign Russian assets held in Western financial institutions have been frozen since the start of the full-scale war. While fully confiscating these assets was widely debated, no legal framework for such action was established. Instead, G7 nations agreed to issue loans to Ukraine, secured by income from investing the frozen assets.
In the first phase of the initiative, the G7 approved $50 billion in loans, including $20 billion from the United States and $18 billion from the E.U.
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