US to provide Ukraine with $15 billion from frozen Russian assets
Photo: The United States will provide Ukraine with $15 billion from frozen Russian assets (Getty Images)
The United States will provide Ukraine with $15 billion. These funds will be secured by future revenues from frozen Russian assets, according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
He also said that the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and the World Bank had signed an agreement to use this amount as part of the PEACE in Ukraine project.
According to him, this financial package is part of a broader initiative under which the United States is providing $20 billion to Ukraine as part of the G7 initiative.
Shmyhal noted that the funds will be used for social and humanitarian spending.
“We thank the United States and the World Bank for implementing and supporting the initiative that makes Russia pay for its aggression against Ukraine,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
Russian frozen assets
Russia's frozen assets have become one of the key financial instruments to support Ukraine after the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russian assets that have been blocked as a result of international sanctions include both state reserves and private property of Russian oligarchs linked to the Kremlin.
According to various estimates, the total amount of frozen assets exceeds $300 billion. Among them are the reserves of the Central Bank of Russia kept in foreign banks, as well as the property and finances of Russian state-owned companies.
Much of this money belongs to influential businessmen who actively support the aggressive policy of the Russian authorities.
Earlier, dozens of luxury estates and ships belonging to Russian oligarchs were seized in the EU and the US, as sanctions against them were a response to the war.
EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis recently stated that it is necessary to consider mechanisms for using frozen assets of the Russian central bank to compensate for the damage caused to Ukraine.
Ukraine has already begun to gradually receive the first funds from frozen Russian assets, as Shmyhal recently reported. According to him, the World Bank's Executive Board has approved the allocation of $2 billion through the Development Policy Lending (DPL) facility.
Frozen Russian assets and EU funds may be merged. Read how this merger will help Ukraine's recovery in RBC-Ukraine's article.
