WASHINGTON, October 22. /TASS/. The US administration is close to finalizing work on the American portion of the Western loan for Ukraine using proceeds from frozen Russian assets, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said at a press conference in Washington.
"We're very close to finalizing America's portion of this $50 billion loan package. And what I want to emphasize is that the source of financing for these loans, this is not the American taxpayer. What's happening here is that Russia is paying for this support, the 50 billion of support that we intend to go to Ukraine by the end of this year," she said.
She stressed that the American portion of the loan would be $20 billion.
"I would say that we expect to be able to contribute $20 billion to the $50 billion G7 package, although there's just a little bit more work to do to finalize the details," she added.
According to her, "even if there is a final settlement and a truce is reached that it will be Russian funds that will go to repay these loans."
The minister said that on Wednesday in Washington she will hold talks with her Ukrainian counterpart Sergey Marchenko and discuss the terms of the loan, under which "the profits from Russia's assets will pay back this loan." She added that the main issues related to the loan for Ukraine have been worked out.
"We're very close, and there's nothing significant that needs to be still worked out. Now in terms of assurances, we have asked our European Union colleagues for greater assurances that the money will stay locked down and that the proceeds will be available to service these loans. So far, we have not received those assurances from the EU that said we have a very high degree of confidence that the money will be there and will remain locked down," Yellen said.
She stressed that the EU will confirm the seizure of Russian assets every six months while Russia is conducting the special military operation.
On October 22, at an emergency plenary session in Strasbourg the European Parliament approved the mechanism proposed by the European Commission for providing Kiev with a 35 bln euro loan, which is to be repaid using profits from frozen Russian assets.
Following the approval by the European Parliament, the EU Council is expected to consider allocation of 35 billion euros to Ukraine before the end of this week.
In July, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia would definitely respond to the theft of its assets in Europe. He stressed that Moscow intends to initiate legal prosecution of those involved. According to him, Europe has taken the worst path by deciding to use Russian assets to help Kiev.