The G7 has agreed to make use of frozen Russian belongings to lift $50bn (£39bn) for Ukraine to assist it combat invading Russian forces.
US President Joe Biden mentioned it was one other reminder to Moscow “that we’re not backing down”.
Some $325bn price of belongings had been frozen by the group of the world’s richest nations, alongside the EU, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Moscow is threatening “extraordinarily painful” retaliatory measures over the G7’s resolution.
On the summit in Italy, Mr Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a 10-year bilateral safety deal, hailed by Kyiv as historic.
The settlement envisages US army and coaching assist to Ukraine – but it surely doesn’t commit Washington to ship troops to combat for its ally.
The G7 nations of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US have been vital monetary and army supporters of Ukraine because it battles to comprise occupying Russian forces.
Talking at a joint information convention on the summit’s venue in Puglia, southern Italy, President Biden mentioned the $50bn mortgage would “put that cash to work for Ukraine and ship one other reminder to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that we’re not backing down”.
The US chief pressured that the Mr Putin “can not wait us out, he can not divide us, and we’ll be with Ukraine till they prevail on this conflict”.
President Zelensky thanked his American and different allies for his or her non-wavering assist.
And referring to the brand new safety deal, he mentioned: “It is a actually historic day and we’ve signed the strongest settlement inside Ukraine and the US since our independence [in 1991]”.
Different G7 leaders additionally hailed the $50bn mortgage deal, with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak describing it as “recreation altering”.
A lot of the frozen belongings of the Central Financial institution of Russia are being held in Belgium.
Beneath worldwide regulation, international locations can not confiscate these belongings from Russia and provides them to Ukraine.
However the Russian pot is producing numerous curiosity – about $3bn a yr – so the plan is to make use of that curiosity in a inventive manner.
The plan is to take out a mortgage on the worldwide markets, give about $50bn to the Ukrainians, and use the $3bn to repay the curiosity on that mortgage annually.
A number of hours earlier than the G7 resolution was introduced, Russian International Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that there could be “extraordinarily painful” retaliatory measures.
