At the G7 summit at Borgo Egnazia in Italy’s Puglia region, held from 13-15 June and including the attendance of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the G7 leaders vowed to generate around USD 50 billion (EUR 46.7 billion) in additional funding for Ukraine stemming from the immobilisation of Russian sovereign assets.
“We are standing in solidarity to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom and its reconstruction for as long as it takes,” the G7 leaders stated in a joint communiqué.
In addition to the USD 50 billion loan agreement, which will be underwritten by interest accrued on frozen Russian central bank assets in G7 countries, the US Biden Administration signed a bilateral security agreement with Kyiv that is designed to last beyond the war stemming from Russia’s February 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine.
In a 13 June press announcement US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated, “The US-Ukraine Bilateral Security Agreement that Presidents Biden and Zelenskyy signed on the margins of the G7 Summit in Puglia, Italy, today is a historic show of support for Ukraine’s long-term security that furthers commitments made under the G7 Joint Declaration of Support to Ukraine in July 2023 and the President’s approval of the Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act this spring. Under this 10-year agreement, the United States and Ukraine commit to strengthening security and economic co-operation, furthering Ukraine’s institutional capacity-building and reform progress, seeking accountability for Russia’s actions, and establishing the conditions for a just and lasting peace.
“The United States intends to provide assistance, advice, and training to build Ukraine’s defence and security capabilities, advance the reforms necessary to light Ukraine’s path toward EU accession and NATO membership, and bolster Ukraine’s defence-industrial base through co-production and joint ventures with US industry,” Blinken added. “The agreement furthers our goal of a secure, sovereign and independent Ukraine that is integrated with the Euro-Atlantic community and militarily capable of defeating Russian aggression now and deterring it in the future.”
The US-Ukraine Bilateral Security Agreement is widely seen as an attempt to future-proof US military support for Ukraine, which is presumed to be under threat from the possibility of a second term in office for US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump from 2025. At the Helsinki Summit in July 2018 Trump infamously took the word of Russian President Vladimir Putin over the conclusions of his own intelligence agencies when Putin denied any Russian interference in the presidential election that brought Trump to power in January 2017. Trump has since claimed that as president that he could end the Ukraine war “in a day”, but any plan he might have to do so is widely presumed to be acquiescent to Putin and anathema to Kyiv.
