BELLEAU, France (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden mentioned on Sunday he had reached an settlement with French President Emmanuel Macron on the usage of earnings from frozen Russian belongings to assist Ukraine.

Requested if the 2 males had mentioned the problem and whether or not they had come up with an settlement, Biden replied “Yes and yes.”

The Group of Seven nations and the European Union are contemplating how to use earnings generated by Russian belongings immobilized within the West to offer Ukraine with a big up-front mortgage now and safe Kyiv’s financing for 2025.

Round 260 billion euros ($280.9 billion) of Russian central financial institution funds are frozen worldwide, most of it within the EU. The funds generate 2.5 billion to three.5 billion euros a yr in revenue, which the EU says is just not contractually owed to Russia and subsequently represents a windfall.

The thought, championed by the U.S., is to make use of this revenue as a gradual income stream to service a big mortgage of $50 billion that could possibly be raised in the marketplace. Russia says any diversion of the earnings from its frozen funds would quantity to theft.

Tapping earnings from Russian belongings has drawn issues from some international locations, however a U.S. Treasury official mentioned on Tuesday that the US and its G7 companions had been making progress.