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EU provides Ukraine with $1 billion tranche under G7 loan covered by Russian assets

by Kateryna Hodunova May 8, 2025 4:26 PM 2 min read
Illustrative purposes only: A European Union flag flies in front of the District Court in Burgas, Bulgaria, on March 13, 2024. (Michaela Vatcheva/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Ukraine has received 1 billion euro ($ 1.1 billion) from the European Union under the G7's Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) initiative, the European Commission announced on May 8.

The ERA mechanism, totaling $50 billion, provides loans to Ukraine that will be repaid using future profits from frozen Russian assets.

This is the fourth such tranche from the bloc which is secured by proceeds from frozen Russian assets.

The EU's contribution to the initiative totals 18.1 billion euros ($20.4). With the recent payment, the Commission's total lending to Ukraine under this MFA has reached 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) since the start of the year, the statement read.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said that the government will use the funds to "cover critical budget expenditures and strengthen the state."

"It is part of a consistent and just response: the aggressor must pay for the devastation it has caused," Shmyhal wrote on X.

"We are counting on further steps — full confiscation of assets and toughening sanctions in response to Russia's continued atrocities," he added.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, G7 countries have frozen approximately $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets.

The ERA initiative, backed primarily by the U.S. and the EU, aims to use profits from these frozen assets to finance Ukraine's defense and reconstruction.

Previously, in March, Ukraine received the first tranche of 2.5 billion Canadian dollars (about $1.7 billion) from Ottawa and 752 million pounds ($970 million) as the first installment of the U.K.'s contribution to the G7 loan.

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