The G7 countries have pledged $19.8 billion to bolster Ukraine's financial system as Kyiv battles Russian incursion, according to a communique released after the G7 finance ministers' meeting on Friday, May 20..

“In 2022, we will transfer $19.8 billion in budget support, including $9.5 billion of recent commitments. to help Ukraine close its budget deficit and continue to provide basic services to the Ukrainian people,” reads the communique, cited by the Voice of America..

“In addition, we welcome the continued work of the G7 and international financial institutions to further finance Ukraine, in particular the offer of the European Commission for additional macro-financial assistance in the amount of 9 billion euros”.

“Additional planned support to Ukrainian state-owned enterprises and the private sector through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation is $3.4 billion.

“We will continue to defend Ukraine’s interests throughout this war and beyond, and stand ready to do more as needed,” said the finance ministers and central bank governors of the United States, Japan, Canada, Britain, Germany, France and Italy, which make up “.

“The main message is: we support Ukraine,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters on Thursday evening.. “We are going to pool the resources they need to deal with all of this.”.

Ukraine estimates that it needs about $5 billion a month to keep civil servants paid and the administration running..

The participants of the meeting also discussed the possibility of imposing new sanctions against Russia in order to force Moscow to stop the war being waged on the territory of Ukraine..

During the meeting, the participants discussed proposals to reduce Russia's revenues from energy exports, including the introduction of a phased embargo proposed by the European Union, the formation of a buyers' cartel to limit prices for Russian oil, and the imposition of duties on Russian oil imports..

The latest proposal comes from the United States, which sees the imposition of tariffs as a way to limit Moscow's oil revenues while maintaining supplies to the market to avoid price spikes..

All of these proposals are still under discussion, Janet Yellen told reporters, adding that the "

Another G7 spokesperson said that price caps and tariffs could be problematic as there is little incentive for producers to comply and ultimately consumers will bear the brunt of the additional costs..