Porsche luxury cars pass the Ukraine House pavilion before the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, May 22, 2022.
Holly Adams | Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. officials meet informally with allies around the world at the World Economic Forum to discuss continued support for Ukraine as it enters its second year in Russia’s unilateral aggression against sovereign nations. I’m here.
A closed-door meeting at the annual gathering of the richest investors and most powerful world leaders in Davos, Switzerland comes as attendees wait for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He addressed a forum on Wednesday where he could plead for more aid to his country.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), one of President Joe Biden’s closest allies in the Senate, told CNBC that he had spoken with officials at the Davos meeting about the need to continue helping Ukraine.
Speaking to CNBC in a hallway on Tuesday before entering a private conference room at the World Economic Forum’s congress center, Koons said, “I think we need to be clear about our shared priority of helping Ukraine. U.S. officials and their allies need clarity “about the length, cost and complexity of trying to combat Russian aggression and liberate all of Ukraine,” it added. members include Senator Joe Manchin, DW.Va. and Kirsten Cinema, I-Ariz.
For Coons, this is the latest moment when he brought up the war in Russia and Ukraine while attending this year’s World Economic Forum. At a closed-door luncheon Monday with his CEO and dozens of other US lawmakers, Coons spoke about the amount of aid the US has provided to Ukraine so far. The US has already sent about $50 billion to Ukraine in military, financial and humanitarian aid. Congress approved $44.9 billion in additional funding for him on Dec. 23.
Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24, killing thousands.
And Koons and members of Congress from the US delegation aren’t the only ones privately addressing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden’s U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh told CNBC on Tuesday that the war in Ukraine was on the horizon during a private dinner Monday at the Steigenberger Grand Hotel Belvedere in a conversation with three members of the Ukrainian parliament. He didn’t name the other participants because the dinner was private.
Mr Walsh said at the dinner that “everyone supported Ukraine” over Russia. Hearing the conversation, he said, he thought Ukrainian leaders wanted more financial support while they were in Davos.