Gambiaj.com – (NEW YORK, United States) – The Biden administration transferred $20 billion to Ukraine on Tuesday, providing an urgently needed economic lifeline in the form of a loan that will be repaid using interest earned from Russia’s frozen central bank assets.

The transfer of the funds comes as Ukraine is facing a period of grave uncertainty with President-elect Donald J. Trump poised to take office next month and Russia’s war continuing unabated. It ensures that Ukraine will have economic support after President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office.

Mr. Trump and Republicans in Congress are unlikely to continue to provide Ukraine with the same levels of economic and military support as the country received from Democrats and the Biden administration. But the conflict continues, and Ukraine has relied heavily on international aid to keep its economy afloat.

The $20 billion is part of a $50 billion loan that the Group of 7 nations devised and agreed upon earlier this year. The United States and the European Union enacted sanctions to freeze Russia’s central bank assets, most of which are held in Europe, after its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen gathered members of her staff in her large conference room and officials watched as the $20 billion transfer was executed on a laptop from the Treasury Department to the World Bank, which will then disburse it to Ukraine. Ms. Yellen described the loan as one of the most important things that she had been involved with during her time in the job, according to a person who was in the room.

After extended deliberations over how that money could be used to aid Ukraine, officials agreed that they would use the interest that the assets were earning to back a loan. That approach effectively forces Russia to pay for the damage it has caused in Ukraine, and has allowed the United States and Europe to provide aid without putting an additional economic burden on their taxpayers.

The loan represented a policy achievement for the Biden administration and Ms. Yellen. It came after months of deliberations about how to provide more aid to Ukraine as the appetite in the United States for giving it more money has been waning.

The United States and Europe also viewed the loan, which will be disbursed to Ukraine in tranches, as a way to ensure that it would continue to have economic resources even if Mr. Trump won the election.

In theory, Mr. Trump could try to unravel the loan by reversing the sanctions that keep Russia’s central bank assets frozen. However, Republicans would probably oppose such a move and it would not affect Europe’s portion of the loan.

Ms. Yellen said on Tuesday that the loan should make clear to President Vladimir V. Putin that Western nations are not giving up on Ukraine.

“Right now, Putin is engaging our coalition in a contest of wills, counting on us to tire and ultimately retreat,” Ms. Yellen said in a statement. “But, through creative policymaking and the unity of the G7, we are sending an unmistakable message of resolve by making Russia increasingly bear the costs of its illegal war, instead of taxpayers in our coalition.”

The New York Times