LUXEMBOURG: Hungary will hold up a final deal on a ($50 billion) G7 loan to Ukraine until after the US presidential election by delaying its decision on the timing of the renewal of EU sanctions against Russia, Hungary's finance minister said. Washington needs the EU to revise its timeframe for the renewal of sanctions to every three years from the current six months for it to contribute some ($20 billion) to the G7 loan, matching the European Union's contribution, EU officials said.
The remaining ($10 billion) would be provided by G7 members Canada, Britain and Japan, who are already on board.
The loan, agreed in principle by G7 leaders in June, would be serviced with proceeds generated by some ($300 billion) of Russian central bank assets frozen in the West after Moscow attacked Ukraine in early 2022.
Washington does not want to worry every six months whether the Russian assets backing the loan will remain frozen or not, the officials said. "We believe that this issue, the prolongation of the Russian sanctions, should be decided after the US elections. We have to see in which direction the future US administration is going with this issue," Finance Minister Mihaly Varga told a news conference.
The European Union has said that the proceeds from all the Russian assets frozen in the West can finance a loan of up to (€45 billion). Because most of the assets are in Europe, the EU said it can provide up to (€35 billion) for the G7 loan. That amount would be reduced by the sum the United States would contribute.
The issue will be further discussed at the G7 finance ministers meeting in Washington in late October, but Hungary's decision means that the final contributions of each of the G7 countries will only be decided after the November 5 election.
Meanwhile, Ukraine cannot win the war with Russia on the battlefield, and communication and a ceasefire are needed to save lives, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday at a news conference in Strasbourg. Orban added that both direct and indirect communication is needed between the warring parties and it was a part of international politics that a third party mediates between them.
Russian shelling in Ukraine's southern Kherson region on Tuesday killed one person and injured five more, the regional governor said. The village of Antonivka came under attack, Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram. Four injured were hospitalised, he added. Regional prosecutors said on Telegram that Russian troops used artillery to attack the village. — Reuters
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