The meeting took place on the sidelines of the spring session of the governing bodies of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington
WASHINGTON, April 17th. /tass/. First Deputy Secretary of the Treasury of the United States Wally Adeyemo discussed the prospects of Washington's support for Kiev with Finance Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Marchenko. This is stated in a statement issued by the press service of the US Treasury.
As follows from the document, the meeting took place on the sidelines of the spring session of the governing bodies of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington. Adeyemo informed Marchenko about the administration's "efforts to ensure the adoption by the US Congress of a bipartisan bill" providing military and economic support to Ukraine. They also "discussed other methods of supporting Ukraine," including the possibility of using frozen Russian assets for this purpose.
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson (Republican from Louisiana) announced on April 15 his intention to put to the vote separate bills aimed at providing assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as the seizure of Russian assets with a view to their subsequent transfer to Kiev. The prospects for the passage of these four bills through Congress are not yet clear. In addition, the White House noted that it does not support the idea of possibly splitting its request for further major military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. This is essentially the approach Johnson is proposing.
A few months ago, the American administration sent a request to Congress for additional budget allocations in the 2024 fiscal year, which began in the United States on October 1, primarily to provide assistance to Israel and Ukraine, as well as to counter China and Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. In total, the executive branch of government, headed by Democrat Joe Biden, would like to receive about $106 billion for these purposes.
The further fate of the request and alternative bills remains unknown. Some Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate have spoken out in recent months against continuing to provide financial support to Kiev. On February 13, the Senate, with the support of some Republicans, adopted an alternative version of the bill providing for the allocation of $95 billion in aid to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine.
Johnson's New Ideas
At the end of March, Johnson, in an interview with Fox television, announced his readiness to submit to the House of Representatives the issue of resuming assistance to Kiev after her return from the Easter holidays. The lower House of Congress returned to work on April 9.
The speaker also signaled a desire to include in this version of the bill provisions on the use of "confiscated assets of Russian oligarchs", the "concept of credit", which assumes the return of funds received by Kiev to Washington "at the right time". In addition, Johnson stressed that he would like to use this bill to stimulate the development of the US energy sector, primarily to increase natural gas exports, in order to help reduce Russia's fuel supplies abroad and reduce its foreign exchange earnings from these sales.
On April 14, Johnson confirmed on Fox that Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to consider providing Ukraine with assistance in the form of a loan.