West Disburses Loans To Ukraine Using Frozen Russian Asset Interest, Putin: Theft Doesn't Escape Sentence

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Source: Valentina Pevtcova/Roscongress via Kremlin.ru)

JAKARTA - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the planned Western country to lend to Ukraine using interest from frozen Russian assets abroad was theft and would not escape punishment.

Speaking at a meeting with Foreign Ministry officials, President Putin said the Western way of treating Moscow shows any country could fall victim to a similar freezing of Western assets.

"Despite all the pretends, theft will remain a theft. And it will not escape punishment," President Putin stressed.

"Now it is clear to all countries, companies (and) government funds, that their assets and reserves are far from safe in the sense of law and economy," he explained.

"Anyone could be the next target to be taken over by the US and the West," President Putin said.

President Putin spoke a day after the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), major democracies, approved a outline agreement to provide a $50 billion loan to Ukraine.

The loan used interest from Russian state assets that were frozen after Moscow shipped tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine by 2022, which it described as a special military operation.

The G7 plan for Ukraine is based on a multi-year loan that utilizes a profit of about USD 300 billion of confiscated Russian funds. The technical details will be finalized in the coming weeks, the G7 diplomatic source told Reuters. The source, who declined to be named, said additional funds would arrive by the end of this year.

A senior American official said America itself had agreed to provide funds of up to 50 billion US dollars, but that amount could decline significantly when other countries announced their participation.