The Biden administration announced earlier this week a loan of $20 billion to Ukraine, financed by proceeds from frozen Russian assets, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, who has talked about ending financial aid to the country as well as the fighting, takes office.
Reports said that the funding is part of a larger $50 billion G7 support package and arrives just over a month before President Joe Biden leaves the White House.
These loan funds come at a critical time for Kyiv, as President-elect Donald Trump has already expressed a desire for an immediate settlement between the two parties instead of continuing to fund what he describes as an endless war, Breitbart News reported.
Trump has increasingly questioned the financial support provided to Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion, stating as recently as last weekend that he will “probably” reduce aid to Kyiv.
“These funds — paid for by the windfall proceeds earned from Russia’s own immobilized assets — will provide Ukraine a critical infusion of support as it defends its country against an unprovoked war of aggression,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
The G7’s loans “will help ensure Ukraine has the resources it needs to sustain emergency services, hospitals and other foundations of its brave resistance,” Yellen added, per an AFP report.
The loan comes just days after Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris, France, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron during the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral five years after it was ravaged by fire.
The support “will strengthen Ukraine’s defense and help protect our sovereignty and people against unprovoked aggression,” Zelenskyy said in a statement.
The Treasury stated that Washington had already transferred $20 billion to the World Bank, which will make these funds available to Ukraine through an existing program. The additional funds will almost assuredly prolong the conflict at a time when the incoming administration will hit the ground next month with a plan to end the nearly two-year-old war that has reportedly killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians.
