The Russia-Ukraine war has crossed into its 651st day, and Kyiv is struggling for funds. As the US Congress continues to ponder over the $60 billion aid proposal by President Joe Biden, on Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the funding request failure means the country would be “responsible for Ukraine’s defeat”.
What Yellen said
On Tuesday, during a trip to Mexico City, Yellen told reporters that the funding – particularly for Ukraine’s general government budget support. She said that the funding was “utterly essential” and that it was a pre-condition to keep International Monetary Fund (IMF) support flowing to war-torn Ukraine.
“I’ve talked to members of Congress, my colleagues have. I think they understand this, that this is a dire situation and we can hold ourselves responsible for Ukraine’s defeat if we don’t manage to get this funding to Ukraine that’s needed, and I’m including direct budget support here because that’s utterly essential,” said Yellen.
“Ukraine is just running out of money,” she said.
“They’re spending more than every penny they’re taking in, in tax revenue, on military salaries and defence, and they wouldn’t have any schools or hospital or first responders if not for the money we’re sending to them to support them.”
This comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff voiced a similar warning.
A ‘big risk’
Also on Tuesday, Andriy Yermak said that the postponement of US assistance would create a “big risk” of Ukraine losing the war against Russia.
These remarks, as per Reuters, were some of the frankest yet by a senior Kyiv official.
He said that if the aid is postponed, “it gives the big risk that we can be in the same position to which we’re located now.”
“And of course, it makes this very high possibility impossible to continually liberate and give the big risk to lose this war,” he added.
Zelensky’s upcoming video summit with G7 leaders
Just hours after he unexpectedly skipped a virtual meeting with US senators, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will join a video summit with the leaders of the G7.
The summit is slated to be held on Wednesday (Dec 6). As per chair Japan’s spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno, the meeting will see Zelensky “join the first part”.
Zelensky, during the meeting with US senators, was expected to press them for the $60 billion aid package.
During the video meeting, the talks, as per a Reuters report citing a White House official, are expected to cover Ukraine, the Middle East, support for developing countries, and artificial intelligence.
(With inputs from agencies)
