WORLD BRIEFING: June 14, 2024

The Group of Seven countries have reached an agreement on tapping future interest from about $300bn in frozen Russian assets to provide a $50bn loan to Ukraine, a senior US official told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 meeting. “We have political agreement at the highest levels for this deal. And it is $50bn this year that will be committed to Ukraine,” a senior Biden administration official said on condition of anonymity. The official said the United States had agreed to provide up to $50bn itself, but that amount could decline significantly as other countries announced their participation. The official said there would be multiple disbursement channels for Ukraine to receive the money, and it could be used for different purposes, including to provide support for its military, budget, reconstruction and humanitarian needs, Al Jazeera reported. The money is to be repaid from interest generated from $300 billion in assets that Mr. Putin, inexplicably, left in Western financial institutions before his February 2022 invasion, the NYT reported.

US President Joe Biden signed a 10-year security pact with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that Mr. Biden portrayed as guaranteeing a supply of weapons, intelligence support, advice and technology needed to win the war and deter a new one. The NYT reported that the security pact contains no funding — “just an American commitment to work with Congress to secure the tens of billions of dollars that would be required. That most likely means another bruising fight on Capitol Hill, where a bare majority of Republicans in Congress had for months opposed any more commitments of funds and the arms they buy before funding was approved in April.”

At a joint news conference following the signing of a bilateral security pact, US President Joe Biden said it comes as G7 leaders throw more sanctions onto Russia and utilise frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. He said it showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot wait out western allies nor can he divide them. President Volodymyr Zelensky called it the most important bilateral agreement with the US since Ukraine independence

New US sanctions against Russia have caused an immediate suspension of trading in dollars and euros on the country’s leading financial marketplace, the Moscow Exchange. The exchange, also known as MOEX, and the Russian central bank rushed out statements Wednesday, a public holiday in Russia, within an hour of Washington announcing a new round of sanctions aimed at cutting the flow of money and goods to sustain Moscow’s war in Ukraine. “Due to the introduction of restrictive measures by the United States against the Moscow Exchange Group, exchange trading and settlements of deliverable instruments in US dollars and euros are suspended,” the central bank said. The move means banks, companies and investors will no longer be able to trade either currency via a central exchange, which offers advantages such as better liquidity and oversight. Instead, they will have to trade over the counter, where deals are conducted directly between two parties. The central bank said it would use data from those trades to set official exchange rates. - CNN

The Ukrainian armed forces said air defenses had struck down all 17 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight over seven regions. Russia also fired 17 cruise and ballistic missiles, half of which were intercepted, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. There were no reports of casualties or damage. However multiple air raids sirens throughout the night interrupted sleep for millions. Explosions were reported in Khmelnytsky is western Ukraine and Polish authorities said jets were scrambled to counter missile threats

Wheat exports from Ukraine will fall to a 10-year low in a year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Wheat production in the 2024-2025 marketing year is forecast at 19.5 million tons, which is 3.5 million tons less than last year's harvest. Exports will amount to 13 million tons, which is the lowest figure in the last 10 years

World leaders will join Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky at a summit this weekend to explore ways of ending the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, but Russia is not invited and the event will fall short of Kyiv's aim of isolating Moscow. US Vice President Kamala Harris, French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Germany, Italy, Britain, Canada and Japan are among those set to attend the 15-16 June meeting at the Swiss mountaintop resort of Buergenstock. India, which has helped Moscow survive the shock of economic sanctions, is expected to send a delegation. Turkey and Hungary, which similarly maintain cordial ties with Russia, will be represented by their foreign ministers. But despite months of intense Ukrainian lobbying, some others will not be there, most notably China, a key consumer of Russian oil and supplier of goods that help Moscow maintain its manufacturing base. - RTE

A draft of a communiqué being worked on for the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland this weekend says future peace negotiations should involve "representatives of all parties" in the conflict and follow agreements on nuclear security, food security, the return of prisoners of war and kidnapped children. - RFE/RL

In sweltering temperatures, Muslim pilgrims in Mecca converged on a vast tent camp in the desert on Friday, officially opening the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Ahead of their trip, they circled the cube-shaped Kaaba in the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site. More than 1.5 million pilgrims from around the world have already amassed in and around Mecca for the Hajj, and the number was still growing as more pilgrims from inside Saudi Arabia joined. Saudi authorities expected the number of pilgrims to exceed 2 million this year. This year’s Hajj came against the backdrop of the raging war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian militants, which pushed the entire Middle East to the brink of a regional war between Israel and its allies on one side and Iran-backed militant groups on the other. - AP