President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine met with the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde on June 19 in Kyiv.
“We are grateful that you have decided to come to Ukraine even after strikes on our civilian infrastructure and our people. We appreciate such steps. The most important thing is people and public morality. So we are very grateful that there are friends who can support our people at times of war,” he said.
Zelensky and Lagarde discussed the use of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s needs. In addition, the two focused on finding mechanisms to continue sanctions against such assets.
The key topic of the meeting was budget support of Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that, despite the war, the authorities not only covered the needs of the defense sector, but also paid salaries, pensions and social assistance to citizens.
“That is why support from institutions such as the European Central Bank is really important. And it is necessary to work to close the gaps in our budget that arose over the war,” the head of state said.
The president expressed gratitude for the loan within the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration for Ukraine (ERA) in the amount of $50 billion.
Christine Lagarde assured of continued financial support from the European Central Bank and noted the performance of the National Bank of Ukraine. (Ukrinform)