The Treasury secretary is in the midst of a weeklong trip to Europe, with stops in Warsaw, Brussels and Bonn, Germany, where she will meet her counterparts at the Group of 7 finance ministers summit. Aid to Ukraine is expected to be a central topic at that meeting.
Ms. Yellen said that Ukraine’s financial needs are immediate and that it lacks funding to pay soldiers, pensioners and employees to keep its government running.
“What’s clear is that the bilateral and multilateral support announced so far will not be sufficient to address Ukraine’s needs, even in the short term,” she said.
Whether her call will be heeded remains to be seen. European nations are facing their own economic strain, including rapid inflation and soaring energy costs, and big challenges lie ahead as they look to wean themselves off Russian energy.
Ms. Yellen said that the United States would help break Europe’s dependence on Russian energy, in part by increasing American exports of liquefied natural gas. She acknowledged some climate goals to reduce emissions could be set back by the need to rely on coal and fossil fuels, but she said the current predicament should be a reminder of the need to “redouble our efforts on clean and renewable energy.”