The G7 will explore ways to use the future income from frozen Russian assets to boost funding for war-torn Ukraine, finance chiefs from the Group of Seven industrial democracies said on Saturday, but offered no details of how to do so,
Reuters reports.
The G7 and its allies froze some $300 billion of Russian financial assets, such as major currencies and government bonds 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 immobilized Russian sovereign assets to the benefit of Ukraine," the G7 said at the end of a two-day meeting in northern Italy.
Financing for Ukraine and meeting China's growing export strength were the main themes addressed in comments from finance ministers during the gathering in the lakeside town of Stresa.
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 $50 billion in the near term.
However, the cautious wording of the statement, containing no figures or details, reflects many legal and technical aspects which need hammering out before such a loan could be issued.
The issue will now be discussed by G7 leaders at a summit in southern Italy in mid-June.
"We are not yet ready to find further and clear measures to finance Ukraine, but this is now a topic of intensive work," German Finance Minister Christian Lindner told reporters.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Moscow would reciprocate if the G7 went through with its threat. His government has already taken control of some Western businesses active in Russia.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a loan to Kyiv was only "the main option" for G7 leaders to consider next month, but she didn't want to "take anything off the table as a future possibility."
