EU secures £30bn loan for Ukraine using frozen Russian assets
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Friday in Kyiv that the European Union will provide Ukraine with a loan of £30 billion. This loan will be secured using frozen Russian assets. This solution was agreed upon in the G7 format.
"We should make Russia pay for the destruction it caused," emphasized von der Leyen at a joint conference with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
As part of the sanctions, the EU has frozen Russian assets amounting to approximately £170 billion. The Community has now agreed to transfer profits from their transactions to Ukraine. The immobilised assets themselves are to be used.
Von der Leyen stated that Ukraine would receive the loan quickly and be secured with Russian money. The funds will go directly to the Ukrainian budget, and Kyiv will decide how to use them.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky stated after talks in Kyiv with the President of the European Commission that Russia will not cease attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure. We thank the European Union for its support in maintaining it.
He emphasized the importance of promptly carrying out all the agreed-upon measures. He expressed his gratitude to the EU for announcing an additional £140 million in energy assistance to Ukraine. He noted that £90 million of this funding is derived from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets.
The heating season starts in two weeks. According to the speech by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, published on the EC website, thanks to EU aid in repairs and the export of energy from the EU, 25 percent of Ukraine's energy needs for winter will be covered.
Ukrainian power plants destroyed in Russian attacks
According to EC data, Ukraine needs 17 GW of electricity generation capacity for winter. However, 80 percent of Ukrainian thermal power plants and one-third of the capacities of hydropower plants have been destroyed.
"This is where we will concentrate our repair efforts, with the aim of restoring 2.5 gigawatts of capacity this winter. That is approximately 15% of Ukraine's needs," noted von der Leyen.
At a conference at the beginning of July, Prime Minister Donald Tusk informed the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, that due to the Russian threat to Ukrainian power plants, Poland is working on ensuring that electricity generated by Polish power plants from Polish coal is sent to Ukraine before winter "with European money" through the existing energy bridge. The work would be directed, among other things, at ensuring that this production could be excluded from EU CO2 emission charges.
