The seven main economies of the world announced this Friday their intention to continue with the economic and arms support to Ukraine in what Germany called a “powerful sign of Unit” to deepen the global isolation of Russia. “Never since the end of the cold war have we G7 members faced such a profound challenge. Never before have we been more united,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the host of the meeting, said in a tweet. this Friday brings together the G-7 foreign ministers in the German town of Wangels.
The economic package is scheduled to be discussed next week at the meeting of the finance ministers of the G-7. According to the magazine ‘Der Spiegel’, they will discuss an aid from €30 billion to Ukraine. This amount would be added to another 500 million euros for military support from the European Unionas announced at the Wangels meeting by the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Joseph Borrell.
The aid to be discussed by the G-7 – made up of the US, UK, France, Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany – will be divided into soft loans and in non-refundable contributions. Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the group, is promoting the commitment but there are countries, according to ‘Der Spiegel’, that are still reluctant to it, especially with regard to non-returnable amounts. The sum of 30,000 million has been calculated on the assumption that the war will end before the end of this year.
The United Kingdom and the United States are in favor of financing at least part of the aid to Ukraine with money seized from Russian oligarchs. Germany, on the other hand, is suspicious of this measure: “With private fortunes it would be a expropriation and in our legislation the obstacles to this are very high,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner told the German magazine.
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The 500 million euros announced by Borrell are added to the 1,500 million already granted to Ukraine for weapons and military equipment. The head of European diplomacy denied that the new contribution will be used to supply Ukraine with combat aircraft, as the Government of Ukraine had announced. Volodymyr Zelensky. As he explained, it will be used to provide heavy weapons: “At the moment, we are supplying armored vehicles, tanks, heavy artillery, ammunition, the things that are needed in this type of war.”
The European Union has yet to approve the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, which includes the oil embargo. Hungary’s refusal is delaying the final decision. According to Borrell, the foreign ministers will deal with the issue once again on Monday and he will be in charge of giving it “a political boost.”