Biden Departs For G7 Summit Amid Concerns Over Frozen Russian Asset Plan

US President Joe Biden has departed the United States for the G7 leaders’ summit in Puglia, Italy, where leaders were widely expected to release the final plan for using immobilised Russian sovereign assets to underwrite a USD$50 billion loan for Ukraine.

• That plan may be at risk after concerns from French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, raising the prospect that the US will struggle to raise more funding for Ukraine before the presidential election in November, after which a Ukraine-sceptic Trump administration may freeze additional aid to Kyiv.
• Politico reports that Macron and Scholz, "will tell President Joe Biden they reject the American proposal for Europe to act as sole guarantors for the loan."
• A senior European diplomat said: “What Washington is proposing is, 'We [the U.S.] take a loan, Europe takes all the risk, you [Europe] pay the interest, and we [the U.S.] use the money for a U.S.-Ukraine fund,'” said one . “We might be stupid but we’re not that stupid.”
• White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters yesterday: “We will announce new steps to unlock the value of the immobilized Russian sovereign assets to benefit Ukraine and help them recover,” stopping short of confirming that a full agreement had been struck.
• White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is scheduled to brief the press aboard Air Force 1 shortly. LIVESTREAM