US Provides Ukraine With $20 Billion Loan That Russia Will Pay For

The United States has granted Ukraine a $20 billion loan. The loan is secured by the proceeds of Russian assets frozen in the West. It is from these assets that the loan and interest will be repaid. This was reported by the US Treasury Department.

On 10 December, the US Treasury released a special announcement that Ukraine would receive a $20 billion loan from the US, which would be repaid with funds from frozen Russian assets.

In the statement, U.S. officials emphasise that the money is part of a $50 billion G7 initiative to help Ukraine. In addition to the United States, the EU, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan are contributing.                                 

Although the money is formally transferred as a loan, the interest and principal will be repaid not by Ukraine, but by the proceeds of frozen Russian assets in Western countries.

‘These funds, paid for with windfall proceeds from Russia's own frozen assets, will provide Ukraine with important support as it defends its country from an unprovoked war of aggression,’ said US Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen.

According to her, the $50 billion jointly provided by the G7 countries will enable Ukraine to finance ‘emergency services, hospitals and other essentials of its brave resistance’.

The G7 will transfer their $20 billion to the World Bank's Financial Intermediation and Recovery Investment Facility for Ukraine (F.O.R.T.I.S. Ukraine FIF), through which it will be made available to Ukraine.