US 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 US after the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion.
Proposals include borrowing against the future interest income from the frozen assets, so that Ukraine could be given as much as $50 billion immediately. “Let’s compare the proposals, let’s see what is the most convenient, the most efficient, the most rapid proposal that could be put in place,” he said. “The key point is not the method that we use, the key point is to ensure the right and strong and longstanding financing of the Ukrainian government.”