“We have a newly elected president and we’re going to wait and take the new commander-in-chief’s direction on all of that so I don’t expect any Ukraine funding to come up now,” Johnson said.
After many months of negotiations, G7 countries agreed in October to provide a $50 billion loan to Ukraine that is structured to be repaid with interest derived from more than €200 billion of immobilized Russian assets in Western control.
According to the agreement — which was struck before the U.S. election on Nov. 5 — Brussels and Washington are set to put up $20 billion each, with the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan contributing the remaining share.
While the U.S. originally expressed concerns about the financial viability of the loan, the Biden administration eventually pledged to contribute $20 billion in an attempt to corner Trump into continuing American support for Ukraine.
Given the level of uncertainty, Karbownik urged Trump to make his intentions known sooner rather than later to allow the EU time to create a contingency plan.
If the worst-case scenario were to happen, Karbownik added, “we’ll make provisions as the EU to ensure that the $50 billion goes to Ukraine regardless of Trump.”
