Janet Yellen to push Ukraine’s case at G20 meet in India, says Russia’s war a failure

File image of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (AP Photo)

US Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen has said Russia's war against Ukraine has been a "strategic failure" for the Kremlin and that the US will push for further support for Kyiv at this week's G20 meetings.

"One year later, Putin's war has been a strategic failure for the Kremlin. Ukraine still stands. And NATO and our global coalition stand united behind it. Ukraine has mounted a heroic resistance," Yellen said on February 23 in Bengaluru.

"Continued, robust support for Ukraine will be a major topic of discussion during my time here in India," she added.

Yellen was speaking to reporters a day before the meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors scheduled for February 24-25 in India's tech hub and capital city of Karnataka.

The first day of the meeting coincides with the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In her remarks, Yellen reiterated US President Joe Biden's commitment to stand with Ukraine "for as long as it takes", as she slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin's "immoral war" for exacerbating the stress on global food systems.

She praised the Black Sea Grain Initiative for improving supply and cooling down prices, adding that the initiative must be extended beyond March.

"More work will be done this year at the G20 on these food security challenges. I believe this work cannot come soon enough," Yellen said.

Commenting on the price caps imposed on Russian fuel products, Yellen said the move was working to reduce Russian revenues and stabilise global energy markets.

"Last month, the Kremlin's oil revenue was nearly 60 percent lower than in the immediate aftermath of the invasion. We have continued to see emerging markets negotiate steep discounts on Russian oil – which keeps oil on the global market but sharply reduces the Kremlin's take."

India has been one of the countries to buy deeply discounted oil from Russia, believed to be priced around $45 per barrel, around 25 percent lower than the price cap of $60 a barrel.

G20 meetings

In her meetings this week in Bengaluru, Yellen said she was looking forward to making progress on debt, climate change, and the evolution of the multilateral development banks.

Yellen said that while multilateral development banks had helped immensely in advancing poverty alleviation and inclusive development, it is critical that they integrate work on global challenges into their core mission.

"We are in the process of working with shareholders and management to evolve the World Bank. Over the next couple of days, I will be discussing how the G20 can build on the momentum at the World Bank for ambitious reforms. I’ll also discuss how we can accelerate the evolution of the regional development banks," she said.

Last week, the World Bank said president David Malpass had told the organisation's board of his decision to step down on June 30 after more than four years at the helm.

With the Bank having opened the nomination process to pick Malpass' succesor, Yellen said the US intends to put forward a candidate, though a name had not been finalised yet.

Earlier in the day, Yellen met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The two ministers discussed strenghthening multilateral development banks, global debt vulnerabilities, crypto assets, health, and the Just Energy Transition Partnership, the finance ministry tweeted.

"The Secretary...thanked India for taking a leadership role on promoting sovereign debt restructuring, while encouraging faster G20 efforts on existing debt restructuring cases," a statement by the US Department of Treasury said.