Your trusted source

A top Ukrainian official says the country is asking the Biden administration to provide at least $2 billion per month in emergency economic aid, arguing that failure to deliver the money could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis, The Washington Post reported.

Appearing in Washington for meetings with senior U.S. officials, Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko said that the country is seeking a total of at least $5 billion per month in international assistance — with about $2 billion of it coming from the United States — to cover the country’s immediate needs for April, May and June. Beyond these billions in aid, an additional longer-term request is expected in the future to help Ukraine recover from what is estimated to be far greater damage from the war.

“We need to cover this gap right now to attract the necessary finance and win this war,” Marchenko told The Washington Post in an interview.

The request from the Ukrainians comes as lawmakers return to Washington facing a crunch of new spending fights. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen told reporters on Thursday that the administration is working on sending Congress an additional request for aid to Ukraine, but she declined to say how much.

The ties between U.S. and Ukrainian economic officials have deepened over the course of the war. Marchenko attended a private dinner hosted by Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo on Thursday, which included representatives from top American firms such as Goldman Sachs and the Business Roundtable. Yellen also met with Marchenko and Denys Shmyhal, the country’s prime minister, and participated in a walkout of a Group of 20 meeting last week when Russia’s finance minister started speaking.

The United States has already provided roughly $1 billion in economic support to Ukraine since the war began in late February. The administration also announced last week that it was making available $500 million in aid to Ukraine from a previous aid package approved by Congress in March, and President Biden has announced separate tranches of U.S. military aid to the country.