G7 expects $50-bn Ukraine plan at Italy summit

(ANSA-AFP) - BARI, JUN 13 - G7 leaders gather Thursday for the first day of an Italy summit, hoping to seal a deal on providing $50 billion for Ukraine using frozen Russian assets.
    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will join US President Joe Biden and leaders from Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan at the luxury Borgo Egnazia resort in Puglia.
    The G7 leaders hope to agree on an urgent $50 billion loan to help Kyiv with defence, budgetary support and help for reconstruction after more than two years of war with Russia. The loan would be secured against the future profits from interest on 300 billion euros ($325 billion) of Russian central bank assets frozen by Western allies. "We are on the verge of a good outcome here," US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.
    "Hopefully by the time that leaders meet today, we will have a common vision on the way forward," he told reporters ahead of the formal opening of the summit. But he said delegations were still thrashing out the details, including how many countries would "step up" and the kind of financial vehicle involved.
    (ANSA-AFP).