U.S. wants to allocate more than $500 million to Ukraine - Nuland

KYIV, March 5 /Ukrinform/. The United States plans to provide more than $500 million to Ukraine in 2016.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said this during hearings in Congress on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"The President's budget includes a fiscal year 2016 request of $513.5 million [to assist Ukraine] that is almost six times more than our request in 2014," she said.

She noted that the United States is working with Europe, the Ukrainians, and the IMF to strengthen the country's economy and support implementing the government's reform plan, including a new $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee.

In this context, Nuland said that if Ukraine continues making concrete progress on its economic reform agenda and conditions warrant, the U.S. Administration will also be willing, working with Congress, to consider providing an additional loan guarantee of up to $1 billion in late 2015.

She also informed that, since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, the United States provided almost $355 million in foreign assistance - in addition to the May 2014 $1 billion loan guarantee - to strengthen energy security; insulate Ukraine's poorest citizens from the impact of rising gas costs; help fight corruption; strengthen the Ukrainian border guard and military - $118 million in security support alone - and to support political reforms, elections and cleaner government.

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