Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen makes secret trip to Ukraine

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and pledge more financial support from the United States in the war with Russia.

She announced the transfer of $1.25 billion in economic and fiscal aid to Ukraine following President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Kiev last week.

“I want you to know this: you are not alone. We’re on your side. The United States has your back – and we will stand by you for as long as it takes,” she said.

Yellen started her visit when the air raid siren went off in Kiev.

US officials said her visit is to demonstrate the importance of the US economy to the Ukrainian government.

A year after the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, it comes at a time when some Republican lawmakers are questioning why the US 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 to honor Ukrainians who died in the war and visited a school receiving US budget support.

She stopped to inspect a wrecked Russian tank and a mobile artillery piece on display in a town square clear of visitors and met first responders from the town’s emergency services.

Yellen visited Kiev on her return to Washington from a meeting of G20 financial leaders in Bengaluru, India, where she urged her counterparts to boost economic aid to Ukraine and insisted that G20 ministers stop the invasion of strongly condemn Russia.

Since the start of the war, the United States has given Ukraine more than $13 billion in economic and budget support, and the latest disbursement will push that to more than $14 billion, with another $8.65 billion expected through September 30.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrives to lay flowers on a memorial wall of fallen defenders of Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War during her visit to Kyiv

Finance Minister Janet Yellen visits a school and meets students in Kiev, Ukraine

Yellen said such economic support keeps the Ukrainian government and critical public services running, keeps schools open and pays pensions, and provides a “foundation of stability” that fuels Ukrainian resistance.

“A sustained military effort cannot succeed without an effective domestic government,” Yellen said at Kyiv Obolon School No. 168, where salaries for teachers, administrators and support staff are paid from US budget support funds.

A blackboard, damaged in Russia’s first attack on the capital last year, read “Crimea is ours” next to a sign 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 partially fill the gap.