Britain is to lend Ukraine an additional £2.26bn and allow Kyiv to spend the money on weapons to fight off the Russian invasion as part of a wider $50bn (£38.5bn) loan programme expected to be confirmed by G7 members later this week.
The loans will be repaid using interest generated by the $300bn of frozen Russian assets held in the west, with the extra funds promised as the US heads towards a presidential election where support for Ukraine is a divisive issue.
Rachel Reeves said: “The profits being made on those assets aren’t being kept for Russia to use in the future. They’re now being used to fund Ukraine.” The chancellor made the announcement alongside the defence secretary, John Healey.
Rachel, Where do “profits” on these assets come from? These aren’t corporate bonds but Government bonds. The Government is paying the defence contractors using public money.
If there was no Russian foreign reserves being stolen, would the west not have sent weapons to Ukraine? Of course not! The weapons manufacturers have to make profits, it would come out of a different Government account.
I don’t think anyone is saying it isn’t public money. More than Ukrain isn’t on the hook to repay the loan after the war like the UK was to the US after WW2.