G7 seeing if it can draw on frozen Russian assets, Italy says

The Group of Seven (G7) major powers are looking to see if they can use frozen Russian assets held in the West and not just the interest from the funds, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Friday.

Speaking at the end of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers, Tajani said there was an established legal basis for using the interest from the frozen funds, but experts were now looking to see if the capital itself could be used to help Ukraine.

The West has frozen some $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets. The United States and Britain want this cash to be used to pay for the Ukraine war effort, but European Union member states have questioned the legality of such a move.