Ahead of a meeting with several other world financial leaders, United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on partner nations to join in continuing to send more aid to Ukraine as the Russian invasion enters its second year.
“Our economic assistance is making Ukraine’s resistance possible by supporting the home front: funding critical public services and helping keep the government running,” Yellen said at a news conference in India. “In the coming months, we expect to provide around $10 billion in additional economic support for Ukraine.”
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Yellen is to join other finance ministers and heads of central banks from the Group of 20 nations on Friday for a meeting at a resort near the tech hub of Bengaluru. It is the first major meeting of India’s year-long presidency of the bloc, which includes wealthy G7 democracies as well as Russia, China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
In a joint statement, the G7 finance ministers said the bloc hoped Ukraine and the IMF could agree on a loan programme by March, adding that they had increased financial aid for Ukraine for this year to $39 billion. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said his country was already supporting Ukraine and now other nations had to do their part.
Ukraine is seeking a $15 billion multi-year IMF programme, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday after meeting IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in Kyiv.
According to Yellen, the $46 billion the U.S. has given to Ukraine already has helped the country stay afloat and be able to resist the aggressive Russian conflict. However, she also warned that “we’re not out of the woods yet,” and that other nations must step up.
She said G20 countries, especially China, needed to work to restructure the debts of low- and middle-income countries facing distress, especially the “most urgent” cases of Zambia and Sri Lanka. The G7 also said the bloc would also work on debt relief for such “vulnerable countries”.
Yellen said talks between the United States and China on economic issues would resume at “an appropriate time”, but also warned Beijing that providing any material support to Russia’s war effort would be “a very serious concern”.
The issue of sending more aid to Ukraine is a complex foreign policy entanglement that several Republicans have begun to question. Many do not support a “blank check” being given to Ukraine.
Ukraine has been dealing with the Russian invasion for a year, and while Russia appears to have struggled in several of the skirmishes, Vladimir Putin does not appear remotely close to standing down or withdrawing, and the Russians may be better able to fight an extended conflict than the Ukrainians.
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