A week after the surprise visit of US President Joe Biden, the minister met in turn with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced “the transfer of an additional amount of more than 1.2 billion dollars”.

“This is the first installment of nearly $10 billion in budget support that the United States will provide in the coming months,” she said during a speech, saying that “maintaining a government effective (was) essential to Ukraine’s ability to respond to Russian attacks”.

“Our economic support allows the Ukrainian government and essential public services to remain operational in extraordinary circumstances”, she added, explaining that this money would allow Ukraine to pay its teachers, its firefighters or even to come to helping the millions of displaced people in the country.

War in Ukraine: “Western countries have only one goal: to destroy Russia”, says Putin

According to Janet Yellen, the United States provided almost $50 billion in “security, economic and humanitarian” aid to Ukraine in 2022, making Washington “the largest bilateral donor” to Kiev.

“We will press for more action from our allies and partners,” she said.

Ms. Yellen also visited a school and the wall “in memory of the defenders of Ukraine who fell during the Ukraine-Russia war”, accompanied by the American ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.

The US Treasury Secretary also praised Friday “President Zelensky’s fervent commitment to managing these funds in the most responsible way”, saying that good governance and the fight against corruption should be “as important in times of war how much peace”.

Ukraine, whose war effort largely depends on Western support, has been rocked in recent weeks by a major alleged corruption scandal over army supplies. Several politicians have been sacked.