Military aid and reconstruction
Yellen wants to use Kremlin assets for Kiev
February 27, 2024, 7:05 p.m
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Western financial resources for the war in Ukraine are not inexhaustible. US Treasury Secretary Yellen is calling on the G7 to find a way to make frozen Russian assets available to Kiev. This is also a signal to the Kremlin.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called for profits from Russian assets frozen by the West to be transferred to Ukraine. It is “urgent and necessary” to find a way to unlock the value of these idle assets “to support Ukraine’s continued resistance and long-term reconstruction,” Yellen said in São Paulo, where she will attend the G20 meeting on Wednesday and Thursday -Finance Minister wants to take part.
This would make it clear “that Russia cannot win if it prolongs the war,” emphasized Yellen. In addition, forwarding the funds to Ukraine would “create an incentive to come to the negotiating table and negotiate a just peace with Ukraine,” Yellen said.
With her request, the US Treasury Secretary specifically addressed the G7 group, which, in addition to the USA, also includes Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, Japan and Canada. “The G7 should work together to explore a range of approaches: seizing the assets themselves or using them as collateral for loans in global markets.” The group of states wants to meet separately in São Paulo on the sidelines of the meeting of G20 finance ministers to discuss supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia, according to G7 circles.
US aid package blocked in the House of Representatives
Two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, Western countries are finding it increasingly difficult to continue supplying Ukraine with money and weapons, even though the country desperately needs them. In the USA, an aid package worth billions is currently being blocked by Republicans in Congress.
There are increasing calls both in the USA and in Europe for the establishment of a fund for Ukraine into which Russian assets frozen by the West because of the war should flow. This is an estimated $397 billion (€366 billion) from bank deposits, yachts, real estate and other property owned by Russian oligarchs close to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.