Ukraine needs the West to do more than seize Russian assets, Janet Yellen says

• Seizing Russian assets won't make up for the failure to send aid to Ukraine, Janet Yellen warned.
• "I don't see a real substitute for Congress providing Ukraine the aid it needs this year," she said.
• Republicans have blocked a plan to send aid to Ukraine in a bid to force Joe Biden to take action on immigration.

Ukraine needs the West to do much more than just seize frozen Russian assets, according to Janet Yellen.

Speaking in São Paulo last week, the Treasury Secretary said that Kyiv was still in desperate need of foreign aid as the conflict dragged on.

"I don't see a real substitute for Congress providing Ukraine the aid it needs this year," she told Bloomberg. "I don't think anyone can fill that gap."

Funding pledged by the European Union and Japan could help the country finance its war effort in the short term, but Yellen said "the total just doesn't seem like enough."

G7 finance ministers met in Brazil last week to discuss what to do with frozen Russian assets worth about $300 billion.

The US believes international law would allow it to monetize the assets, which could then be used to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine. However, Yellen's French counterpart Bruno Le Maire pushed back against that idea.

"I want to be very clear: we currently have no legal basis for the seizure of Russian assets," he said on the sidelines of the Brazil summit.

Bloomberg reported that US President Joe Biden wants the G7 to make progress on its plans before the next leaders' summit in Italy in June.

The White House has tabled a separate plan to send aid worth $60 billion to Ukraine, but its efforts have stalled in Congress.

Republicans have been blocking the effort to provide Kyiv with funds in an attempt to force Biden to clamp down on illegal immigration at the Mexico border.