What Ukraine planned for Washington on 15 April 2022
A look back at the announcement of a high-level delegation to the IMF and World Bank meetings, set against a week of diplomacy and warnings.
What did Ukraine intend to bring to Washington's financial gatherings? On 15 April 2022, Kyiv announced that senior officials would travel to the United States for the meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank the following week. The delegation was to include Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and National Bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko. Discussions were expected to centre on the Russian invasion and its effect on the global economy.
A week of diplomacy
The announcement followed several days of intense international activity. On 13 April 2022, the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Andrzej Duda, Gitanas Nauseda, Egils Levits and Alar Karis, arrived in Kyiv and met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The same day, the United States announced a further 800 million dollars in security assistance for Ukraine. The package included 11 Mi-17 helicopters, 18 155mm howitzers, 300 additional Switchblade drones and radar systems able to track incoming fire and pinpoint its source. Some officials in the Biden administration had considered such a step too risky in terms of escalation only weeks earlier.
Warnings from Moscow
Russia's rhetoric hardened in parallel. On 13 April 2022, the Russian defence ministry said it would begin targeting Ukrainian decision-makers, including Zelenskyy, and command centres in Kyiv if Ukrainian forces continued to attack Russian territory. Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said US and NATO vehicles carrying weapons on Ukrainian territory were legitimate military targets.
On 14 April 2022, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey was still working to organise a possible meeting between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The economic fallout
The economic theme of the Washington trip echoed elsewhere. On 14 April 2022, Egypt's agriculture minister, El Sayed El Quseir, announced that India had approved Egyptian wheat imports because of shortages caused by the invasion. Colombia's president, Ivan Duque, said on 13 April 2022 that events in Ukraine amounted to genocide, after his country raised energy production to help meet Western demand following the cut-off of Russian supplies.
On the same date, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Finland would decide on NATO membership within weeks, after Russia warned it against joining.
Against that backdrop, the planned delegation underscored how the war was being treated as an economic matter as well as a military one.
