As Russian-Ukrainian battlefronts escalate on Monday in a new day of war, US President Joe Biden stated that he reached an agreement with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, regarding the use of frozen Russian asset proceeds to aid Ukraine.
According to the White House, Biden visited the American Cemetery and Memorial in the Aisne region of northern France on Sunday to honor American veterans. Responding to whether he held discussions with Macron on the issue of using proceeds from Russian assets and if they reached an agreement on this matter, Biden said, “Yes, and yes.”
G7 countries and the European Union are considering how to use the proceeds from frozen Russian assets in the West to provide Ukraine with a large loan upfront and provide financing to Kyiv in 2025.
Biden concluded his five-day visit to France, during which he attended ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings on June 6 and 7, and held talks with Macron on June 8. On June 7, the “Semaphore” portal reported that the United States and European countries are nearing an agreement on using proceeds from frozen Russian assets to meet Ukraine’s military needs, expressing hope for an agreement by the G7 summit scheduled in Italy from June 13 to 15.
It is worth noting that around 260 billion euros ($280.9 billion) of Russian central bank funds are frozen worldwide, most of them in the European Union. These funds yield profits ranging from 2.5 to 3.5 billion euros annually, and the European Union states that they are not owed to Russia under contracts, thus representing unexpected gains.
The idea supported by the United States is to use these profits as a steady source of revenue to service a large loan of $50 billion that can be raised from the market. Russia claims that any transfer of profits from its frozen funds would be theft.
Exploiting profits from Russian assets raises concerns for some countries, but a US Treasury official stated on Tuesday that the United States and its G7 partners are making progress in this regard.
It is worth mentioning that the European Union, the United States, Japan, and Canada froze around $300 billion in Russian assets in the spring of 2022, with about $5-6 billion of these assets in the United States, and most of the frozen assets in Europe, including on the international platform “Euroclear” in Belgium.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that Washington and its allies are exploring the possibility of using Russian sovereign assets to rebuild Ukraine after the conflict ends.
