G7 leaders gather Thursday for the first day of an Italy summit, seeking to seal a deal on using frozen Russian assets to help war-torn Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will join US President Joe Biden and leaders from Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan at the luxury Borgo Egnazia resort in Puglia.

The G7 leaders are hoping to agree on a $50 billion loan for Kyiv, secured against the future profits from interest on 300 billion euros ($325 billion) of Russian central bank assets frozen after the February 2022 invasion.

The European Union — where most of the funds are being held — agreed earlier this year to use the profits for Ukraine, worth up to three billion euros a year.

But the idea at the G7 is to use this to provide more, faster help in the form of a massive upfront loan — although key questions such as who issues the debt and who shares the risk are still being hammered out.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office on Wednesday said a deal had been agreed on providing $50 billion for Ukraine before the end of the year, but said that technical details still needed to be finalised.