U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was in Kiev today on a surprise visit to reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression and to promote U.S. economic aid bolstering Ukraine’s war effort.

Yellen met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior government officials days after the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, restating Washington’s assurances President Joe Biden gave a week ago from the Ukrainian capital.

“America will stand by Ukraine as long as it takes,” Yellen told Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Smikhal, surrounded by sandbags in the cabinet office.

Smichal, speaking through an interpreter, said the two discussed further US sanctions against Russia aimed at weakening its economy and military and “seizing Russian frozen assets and making them available for the recovery of Ukraine”.

But the US secretary told reporters there were still significant legal hurdles to fully seizing $300 billion in Russian central bank assets frozen by sanctions.

Yellen also announced the transfer of the first tranche of $1.25 billion from the latest tranche of $9.9 billion in economic and fiscal aid from Washington.

In a one-on-one meeting with Zelensky late in the afternoon, the Treasury Department said Yellen praised him “for his leadership and determination in the face of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war.”

The U.S. Treasury Department said the secretary welcomed Zelensky’s actions to strengthen governance and tackle corruption — actions needed to ensure that U.S. financial aid is spent responsibly.

Air raid sirens on her arrival

Yellen’s visit comes a week after Biden traveled to Kiev and pledged $500 million in additional military aid to Ukraine and new sanctions on Russia announced days later, including an effective US ban on Russian aluminum imports.

Like Biden, Yellen’s staff worked to keep the visit a secret until after the secretary departed Kiev.

Shortly before her arrival in the capital, the city’s air raid sirens sounded to warn of a possible attack, although these often proved to be false alarms.

On a cold morning, Yellen laid a wreath at a memorial for Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war, saying: “I see firsthand the devastating toll of Putin’s brutal war.”

The US Treasury Secretary stopped to look at a damaged Russian tank in a town square. He declined to answer questions.

Budget support

Yellen visited Kiev on her way back to Washington after meeting the leaders of G20 finance ministers in Bangalore, India, where she urged her counterparts to step up financial aid to Ukraine and urged her G20 counterparts to strongly condemn the Russian invasion.

Since the start of the war, the US has provided Ukraine with more than $13 billion in economic and fiscal support funding, and the latest disbursement will bring the aid total to more than $14 billion, with an additional $8.65 billion expected by on September 30.

The latest funds are part of $45 billion in new military, economic and humanitarian programs approved by Congress in December as part of the US budget legislation.

Yellen said such financial support keeps Ukraine’s government and critical public services running, schools open and pensions paid, providing a “foundation of stability” that fuels the Ukrainian resistance.

“A sustained military effort cannot succeed without an effective government at home,” he said at a school in Kiev, where the salaries of teachers, administrators and support staff come from support funds from the US budget.

A blackboard at the school, destroyed in Russia’s initial assault on the capital last year, read in chalk: “Crimea is ours”, next to a “2+2=4”.

“Maintaining an effective government is essential to Ukraine’s ability to respond to Russian attacks and other emergencies,” Yellen added.

Ukraine is estimated to need $40 billion to $57 billion in external financing this year to prop up its economy and is negotiating a $15.5 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund to partially cover the gap.