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Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen makes a secret trip to Ukraine to meet with Zelensky and pledge MORE US financial support to fight Putin’s forces.
- The US Treasury Secretary arrived in kyiv on Monday as air sirens blared.
- ‘You are not alone. We are with you. The United States stands behind him and we will stand behind him for as long as it takes,” Yellen tells President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- Announced $1.2 billion transfer, first of $10 billion assistance package
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen paid a surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and pledge more financial support from the United States in its war with Russia.
He announced the transfer of $1.25 billion in economic and budgetary assistance to Ukraine as a follow-up to President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to kyiv last week.
‘I want you to know this: you are not alone. We are with you. The United States has your back, and we will be with you for as long as it takes,” she said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during his secret visit.
Yellen began her visit when air raid alarms sounded in kyiv.
US officials said their visit is to demonstrate the importance of the US economy to the Ukrainian government.
One year after the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, it comes at a time when some Republican lawmakers have questioned why the United States is spending so much money and military aid defending Ukraine.
Yellen laid a wreath in Kiev’s St. Michael’s Square at the Wall of Remembrance in honor of Ukrainians who died during the war and visited a school that received budget assistance from the United States.
He stopped to inspect a destroyed Russian tank and mobile artillery piece on display in a city square cleared of visitors and met with first responders from the city’s emergency services.
Yellen visited Kiev on her return to Washington from a meeting of G20 finance leaders in Bangalore, India, where she urged her counterparts to boost economic aid to Ukraine and insisted that G20 ministers strongly condemn Russia’s invasion.
Since the war began, the United States has given Ukraine more than $13 billion in economic and budget support funds, and the latest disbursement will bring it to more than $14 billion, with an additional $8.65 billion expected through September 30th.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrives to lay flowers at the Wall of Memory for Ukrainian Defenders Fallen in the Russo-Ukrainian War during her visit to Kiev.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visits a school and meets with students in kyiv, Ukraine
Yellen said that financial support keeps Ukraine’s government and critical public services running, schools open and pensions paid, providing a “base of stability” that fuels Ukrainian resistance.
“A sustained military effort cannot succeed without effective internal governance,” Yellen said at the Kyiv Obolon School No. 168, where the salaries of teachers, administrators and support staff are reimbursed with US budget support funds. .
A blackboard at the school, damaged in Russia’s initial assault on the capital last year, read “Crimea is ours,” along with one reading “2+2=4.”
Ukraine is estimated to need $40 billion to $57 billion in external financing this year to support its economy and is negotiating a $15.5 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund to partly fill the gap.