Norway could provide a €100 billion loan to Ukraine by offering part of its sovereign wealth fund, considered the world's largest, as collateral, the British newspaper The Times reported, citing sources.
“Norway is discussing a proposal to provide a European military loan worth more than €100 billion to Ukraine, securing the debt with its €1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund“, the article said.
According to the newspaper, the Norwegian government has been affected by suggestions from Denmark and other European partners that the country, which is a member of NATO but not an EU member, is “profiting from the war“.
At the end of October, The Economist magazine estimated that that Kiev will need an additional $389 billion if it continues the conflict with Russia for another four years.
Against this backdrop, EU countries are discussing the possibility of using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine. The proposal is to provide Kiev with a loan from these funds, which it would be obliged to repay only if Moscow pays “reparations“. However, there is no agreement within the EU on this issue.
Moscow has repeatedly called the freezing of its assets “theft”, and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the idea of Russia paying any reparations “unrealistic”. Russia has also imposed retaliatory restrictions: the assets of investors from hostile countries and the income from them are accumulated in special “C“ accounts. They can only be withdrawn by decision of a special government commission.