G7 decision to use seized Russia assets for Kiev illegitimate

"The G7 decision to use the proceeds from Russian assets for the needs of Kiev is an illegitimate step. There is clearly a political motive: to support the agonizing regime in Kiev, which does not care about the fate of ordinary Ukrainians dying by the thousands at the battlefield," according to Antonov comment posted on the Russian Embassy’s Telegram channel.

As Antonov noted, the G7 does not want to change the situation in the world. It denies the collapse of the "rules-based order" and clings to its fragments.

"[G7] is sinking more and more into the abyss of the Ukrainian crisis, from which the leading Western states can no longer get out," he stressed.

Antonov also noted that the loan proposed by the G7 for Ukraine is secured by stolen money, and the United States is trying to force its satellites to take responsibility for it.

"In Europe they do not see the danger of US policies, that are trying to force satellites to take responsibility for a loan, secured by stolen money," the diplomat said in a comment posted on the Telegram channel of the Russian embassy in the US.

"This is not a loan at all, but an ordinary lie. The funds will be lost in the bottomless and hopeless abyss of the Kiev budget, based on theft and embezzlement," Antonov stressed.

"Perhaps one should add profitable contracts for the American defense industry. Maybe it's all just past of Washington's desire to compensate for its economic failures through additional injections into the national arms business?" the ambassador noted.

G7 leaders at a summit in Italy on June 13 reached an agreement to allocate $50 billion to Ukraine from profits from frozen Russian assets until the end of 2024.

The European Union, Canada, the United States and Japan froze Russia's assets in the amount of about $300 billion after the start of the special military operation. Of these, about $5-6 billion are located in the United States, and most of them are in Europe, including on the international Euroclear site in Belgium (where $210 billion is stored).

As Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated earlier, Moscow will immediately take retaliatory steps to the confiscation of its assets in the West. She called the West's intentions to use proceeds from frozen Russian assets in favor of Ukraine cynical and criminal.

SD/PR