(Daily360.com) – Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky spoke at the controversial World Economic Forum (WEF) conference in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday January 16th asking for more aid to come to his war-torn nation. Zelensky also held meetings with Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, and Bridgewater Associates Founder Ray Dalio. Zelensky has been touring multiple nations for the last several weeks trying to drum up enthusiasm and money for Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia.
Reports are that when Dimon introduced himself to Zelensky, the Ukranian president replied “God bless you.” Zelensky seems particularly desperate for support at the current time because more than $100 billion in aid that had been pledged to him is currently held up in both the United States and Europe. These delays are due to weakening western economies combined with more citizens not supporting the frequent Ukrainian aid packages. This is Zelensky’s first appearance at the WEF since 2020 before the war with Russia broke out.
Joe Biden’s White House has been pressing Congress to free up the funds for Ukraine quickly and feel it’s overdue. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) received a letter in December from Shalanda Young, the White House budget chief, warning that the U.S. will soon run out of funds to send to the foreign nation. After the war between Hamas and Israel began, Joe Biden’s proposed a $106 billion supplemental spending package, $61 billion of which would go to Ukraine.
Zelensky previously announced a deal late in 2022 with Global asset manager BlackRock to assist in rebuilding the nation after the eventual conclusion of the war. Blackrock manages more than $8 trillion in assets and its CEO Larry Fink, joined with Zelensky to announce their joined effort to solicit investors to commit finances and infrastructure to Ukraine. The early phase of this rebuild investment appears to have been set in motion during this WEF conference as both Blackrock and JPMorgan Chase announced they will be reconstructing Ukrainian banks. They said they’re “ready to deploy” with some soft commitments from a series of global investors.
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