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Meeting with Donors: The United States and Ukraine Call for More Aid

Meeting with Donors: The United States and Ukraine Call for More Aid

The US government called on the international community to continue providing financial assistance to Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia. “Supporting Ukraine is a joint effort,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned in Washington at the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

There, Ukrainian government representatives met with donors to discuss Ukraine’s financial needs. “We applaud the efforts of our allies and partners to provide timely and extensive (…) assistance,” Yellen said, urging everyone to “continue to do so.”

With a funding gap in the billions, Ukraine is also putting pressure on critical aid that must be delivered quickly. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was connected to the conference via videoconference. He called for Russian state assets to be confiscated and made available to Ukraine for reconstruction.

It is realistic to confiscate the assets of Russia and the assets of the Russian Central Bank so that life can be restored in Ukraine. It will be a “peace-making measure” because it also has a deterrent effect.

What happened since the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022? The most important developments are presented here in chronological order.

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In the past, the international community has largely defaulted on similar demands from Ukraine. The main reasons were legal concerns and practical obstacles – but political risks also emerged. Russia has repeatedly threatened to take countermeasures in the event of expropriation.

The World Bank, jointly with the Ukrainian government and the European Commission, estimated in March that at least US$411 billion (about €374 billion) would be needed in the next ten years for Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery.

Russian soldiers occupied the small town of Lukashevka in northern Ukraine for three weeks. The young women are now helping rebuild destroyed homes.

03/04/2023 | 03:20 min


Accordingly, Ukraine will need US$14 billion (€12.7 billion) for priority reconstruction and rehabilitation investments this year alone. According to the World Bank, there is a financing gap of about 11 billion US dollars (about ten billion euros).

Zelensky demanded that in order for people to be able to return to Ukraine, money is needed to cover the most urgent needs. The Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal, who came to Washington personally, also applied pressure. He said the missing funds should have been collected by the end of the first half of this year at the latest in order to have enough time to invest in social and vital infrastructure.

The International Monetary Fund has just approved a $1 billion loan program for Ukraine over the next four years. It specifically changed its rules to allow such programs for countries facing “extraordinarily high levels of insecurity”.

G7 finance ministers and central bank governors welcomed the loan program in a joint statement during the spring meeting.