European Commission provides Ukraine with another 1-bln-euro tranche under G7 loan

BRUSSELS. March 20 (Interfax) - The European Commission announced on Thursday it was delivering 1 billion euros to Ukraine under its part of a G7 loan to be repaid with proceeds from immobilized Russian assets.

"With today's payment of 1 billion euros, we are reiterating our steadfast commitment to Ukraine. We are helping the country's economy stay on course and rebuild critical infrastructure [...] We will keep supporting Ukraine as long as it takes," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The exceptional Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) loan to Ukraine totals 18.1 billion euros, representing the EU's contribution to a G7-led initiative that collectively aims to provide approximately 45 billion euros in financial support to Ukraine, the European Commission said in a statement.

"With this payment, the [European] Commission's total lending to Ukraine under this MFA reaches 4 billion euros since the start of the year. Discussions with Ukraine are ongoing regarding the timeline for subsequent disbursements. The [European] Commission stands ready to frontload the remaining MFA funds in line with the country's needs, as called for by the European leaders in the Special European Council earlier this month [March 6]," the statement says.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press previously that Russia considers the transfer of revenue from immobilized Russian assets to Kiev to be theft and a reason to start litigation.