ROME, June 15. /TASS/. The prospect of unblocking Russian assets is directly linked to the peace process, which will include compensation for Ukraine, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said.

"The prospect of unfreezing Russian assets directly stems from the peace negotiations, which will tackle one of the issues: who will have to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction," she said at a press conference after the Group of Seven (G7) summit. Thus, Meloni suggested that these funds could be used for such purposes.

The G7 said in the joint statement that Moscow should pay Ukraine for damage, which the World Bank estimates at $486 billion.

The joint statement adopted at the G7 summit in Italy says that "with a view to supporting Ukraine’s current and future needs in the face of a prolonged defense against Russia," G7 will launch "Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) Loans for Ukraine", in order to make available approximately USD 50 billion in additional funding to Ukraine by the end of the year. The statement says that Russia’s sovereign assets, seized by Western financial institutions, will remain immobilized until Russia ends its special military operation "and pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine."

The European Union, Canada, the United States and Japan seized Russia’s assets worth about $300 billion after the start of the special military operation. Of this amount, about $5-6 billion is in the United States, but the bulk is in Europe, including in Euroclear in Belgium ($210 billion is held there).

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier that Moscow would immediately take retaliatory steps. She described the West’s intentions to use proceeds from frozen Russian assets in favor of Ukraine as cynical and criminal.