Status: 05/19/2022 7:48 p.m
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The G7 countries want to support Ukraine with short-term budget support. According to the Reuters news agency, the funds add up to 18.4 billion dollars. This is intended to close the country’s current liquidity gap.
The seven leading industrial nations (G7) have pledged billions in transfer payments and loans to Ukraine, which is under attack from Russia. The Reuters news agency has the draft of the final declaration of the meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bank governors in Bonn and Koenigswinter – and it mentions 18.4 billion dollars. The funds are intended to keep Ukraine liquid. Half came before the G7 meeting.
G7 finance ministers discuss financial aid to Ukraine
Rupert Wiederwald, WDR, daily news at 8:00 p.m., May 19, 2022
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One billion euros from Germany
The federal government had previously promised Ukraine further financial aid, which is included in the total. “I just declared on behalf of Germany at the meeting that we want to contribute a billion euros,” said Finance Minister Christian Lindner on the fringes of the meeting on Petersberg near Bonn.
These are grants that, unlike loans, do not have to be repaid. In the budget for 2022, the last details of which are currently being negotiated in the Bundestag, the additional expenditure will be taken into account immediately without the new debt increasing further as a result.
Finance Minister Lindner announced on the Petersberg the German billions in aid.
Image: AFP
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At the beginning of the week it was also announced that Ukraine is to receive another loan of 150 million euros from the state development bank KfW. The money should be used to support citizens and to rebuild infrastructure, said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal. At the beginning of April, Ukraine had already received 150 million euros from KfW as the last tranche of a loan from the federal government totaling 500 million euros from 2015.
The new loan has a term of 15 years and repayments would only have to start after five years, Schmyhal said. Overall, Ukraine has received more than five billion dollars (currently around 4.8 billion euros) in financial support from Germany since the Russian invasion on February 24.
Christian Lindner, Federal Minister of Finance, on the deliberations of the G7 Finance Ministers on financial aid for Ukraine
tagesschau24 3:00 p.m., 19.5.2022
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More money from Japan too
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had previously announced that he would double his country’s short-term aid to Ukraine to $600 million. The EU Commission wants to provide up to nine billion euros in loans in the short term – with a long term and preferential interest rates. In the longer term, a reconstruction program is planned, in which the EU, according to its own assessment, is likely to become the largest donor.
Rutte: Combine aid with reforms
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte welcomed EU financial aid for Ukraine, but wants to link it to reforms. “It is important to combine reconstruction aid with the reforms that are needed to bring Ukraine even closer to the EU,” said Rutte after a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
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