The G7 has agreed to use frozen Russian assets to raise $50bn (£39bn) for Ukraine to help it fight invading Russian forces.
US President Joe Biden said it was another reminder to Moscow “that we’re not backing down”.
Some $325bn worth of assets were 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 “extremely painful” retaliatory measures over the G7’s decision.
At the summit in Italy, Mr Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a 10-year bilateral security deal, hailed by Kyiv as historic.
The agreement envisages US military and training aid to Ukraine – but it does not commit Washington to send troops to fight for its ally.
The G7 nations of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US have been important financial and military supporters of Ukraine as it battles to contain occupying Russian forces.
Speaking at a joint news conference at the summit’s venue in Puglia, southern Italy, President Biden said the $50bn loan would “put that money to work for Ukraine and send another reminder to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that we’re not backing down”.
The US leader stressed that the Mr Putin “cannot wait us out, he cannot divide us, and we’ll be with Ukraine until they prevail in this war”.
President Zelensky thanked his American and other allies for their non-wavering support.
And referring to the new security deal, he said: “It’s a truly historic day and we have signed the strongest agreement within Ukraine and the US since our independence [in 1991]”.
Other G7 leaders also hailed the $50bn loan deal, with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak describing it as “game changing”.
Most of the frozen assets of the Central Bank of Russia are being held in Belgium.
Under international law, countries cannot confiscate those assets from Russia and give them to Ukraine.
But the Russian pot is generating a lot of interest – about $3bn a year – so the plan is to use that interest in a creative way.
The plan is to take out a loan on the international markets, give about $50bn to the Ukrainians, and use the $3bn to pay off the interest on that loan each year.
Several hours before the G7 decision was announced, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that there would be “extremely painful” retaliatory measures.
