Ukraine pleads more aid from IMF, World Bank
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for Russia’s frozen assets to be available to compensate Ukraine for the damage caused by the Russian invasion of his country during his attendance of the World Bank’s ministerial roundtable on Wednesday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, also called the international community to continue supporting Ukraine with its financial needs during its war with Russia, during her meeting with top representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
The World Bank (WB), Ukrainian government and European Commission have estimated the cost needed to reconstruct and recover Ukraine over the next 10 years to be $451 billion, with an urgent need for $15 billion this year alone.
The financial support to Ukraine will also include $200 million to aid with repairing its energy and heating infrastructure, with contributions from other partners worth $300 million.
Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has suffered damages worth $11 billion in the past year, which is the most critical areas in need of urgent support, resulting in power outages and food, heating and water shortages, said Anna Bjerde, managing director of operations at WB.
“The funds will be used for emergency repairs to Ukraine’s transition transformers, mobile heat boilers, and other critical equipment,” said the World Bank in a statement.
The U.S. has imposed sanctions on over 120 targets; entities linked to state-held energy company, Rosatom, firms based in nations like Turkey, Russian private military company, China based firm and Russian owned bank in Hungary.
The sanctions imposed on Russia are attempts to isolate it and pressure it to end its aggression against Ukraine.
