Volodymyr Zelensky attended a secret roundtable in New York City with the country’s top financiers, including private equity bosses at JPMorgan, Google and Blackstone, to discuss rebuilding war-torn Ukraine.
The meeting was hosted Wednesday evening by the nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan, and included Google CEO Eric Schmidt, billionaire Mike Bloomberg, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman.
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and billionaire Barry Sternlicht were also in attendance, sources said CNN.
Hours earlier, Zelensky met with Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock, to discuss how to attract money from the US private sector for the reconstruction, Fox News reported.
Zelensky is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden later this week to discuss U.S. aid to Ukraine. This comes after Biden and the US Congress provided more than $75 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended a secret roundtable in New York City with the country’s top financiers, including private equity bosses at JPMorgan, Google and Blackstone, to discuss rebuilding war-torn Ukraine
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with the management of the largest asset manager in the world – BlackRock
The meeting was hosted Wednesday evening by the nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan, and included Google CEO Eric Schmidt, billionaire Mike Bloomberg, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman.
Zelensky met with senior members of JP Morgan in February, where he took part in one of the largest annual investment summits hosted by the bank, attended by 200 of the largest corporations, investors and financial firms.
The meeting discussed the creation of a platform for attracting private capital for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Zelensky also focused on the direction of major investment projects in Ukraine, especially in the areas of green energy, IT and agricultural technologies.
JPMorgan has served as Zelensky’s financial advisor to raise private capital for a new investment fund to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure destroyed in the war with Russia, sources told Fox Digital.
The meeting comes a day after Zelensky attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
In his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Biden pledged that the US would remain the “largest donor of humanitarian aid” and pledged to help the world become “climate resilient.”
Biden also highlighted the success of PEPFAR — the president’s emergency AIDS relief plan — as its reauthorization hangs in the balance over conservative claims that it supports abortion abroad.
“We have saved tens of millions of lives that would otherwise be lost to preventable and treatable diseases like measles, malaria and tuberculosis,” Biden said.
“HIV/AIDS infections and deaths fell in no small part thanks to PEPFAR’s work in more than 55 countries, saving more than 25 million lives.”
Zelensky met with Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock, to discuss how to attract US private sector money to rebuild
Pictured: Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.,
Pictured: Eric Schmidt, co-founder, Schmidt Futures; Former CEO and Chairman of Google
Pictured: Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital, speaking to the Wall Street Journal Digital
Pictured: Citadel CEO Ken Griffin speaking at the 2022 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills
Pictured: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House
Pictured: Robert Kraft attends the 65th GRAMMY Awards
The crowd included both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – dressed in his traditional military gear – and the Russian ambassador. Vaisily Nebenzya in the audience.
Biden hammered Russia’s “naked aggression” and vowed to continue funding Kiev, once again calling the current moment “a turning point in world history.”
He also noted that “for the second year in a row, this meeting dedicated to the peaceful resolution of conflicts is darkened by the shadow of war.”
The president called it “an illegal war of conquest” and one that was brought into Ukraine by Russia “without provocation.”
“Like every country in the world, the United States wants this war to end,” he said. “No country wants this war to end more than Ukraine. And we strongly support Ukraine and its efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution that delivers a just and lasting peace.”
But he said: ‘Only Russia, only Russia bears the responsibility for this war.’
“Only Russia has the power to end this war immediately. And it is only Russia that stands in the way of peace, because the Russians’ price for peace is the surrender of Ukraine, Ukrainian territory and Ukrainian children,” Biden said.
“Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow Ukraine to act cruelly without consequences,” the president added.
Biden then explained what he thought the price of that fatigue would be.
“But I ask you this: If we give up the core principles of the United States to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body be confident that it will be protected?” he asked.
“If we allow Ukraine to be divided, is the independence of any country safe?” the president added.
