US pushes for Ukraine aid, united front against China’s trade practices at G7 finance meeting

The U.S. sought to build support for squeezing more money for Ukraine out of frozen Russian assets and for uniting against China’s trade practices as finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich democracies opened a two-day meeting on Friday on the shores of northern Italy’s scenic Lago Maggiore.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is pushing at the meeting in Stresa for “more ambitious options” to unlock money from some $260 billion in Russian central bank reserves frozen in Europe and the U.S. after the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion.

Aid for Ukraine has become more urgent as Kyiv’s finances look shakier against the prospect that the conflict will last through next year and beyond, and as Russia steps up its destruction of civilian infrastructure such as power stations.

The U.S. Congress has passed legislation allowing the Biden administration to seize the roughly $5 billion in Russian assets located in the US, but most of the funds are in Europe. Citing legal concerns, European officials have balked at outright confiscating the money and handing it to Ukraine as compensation for the destruction caused by Russia. Instead they plan use the interest accumulating on the assets, but that’s only around $3 billion a year — about one month’s financing needs for the Ukrainian government.