BlackRock drops Ukraine fund – Bloomberg — ApsnyNews World News

US investment holding BlackRock stopped its search for investors to back a multi-billion dollar fund for rebuilding Ukraine earlier this year, Bloomberg has reported. Interest reportedly dropped after President Donald Trump retook the White House.

The fund was set to be unveiled at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome next week. It had been close to securing backing from firms supported by the governments of Germany, Italy, and Poland, the outlet wrote on Saturday, citing anonymous sources.

Nevertheless, BlackRock reportedly decided to shelve the talks early this year “due to a lack of interest amid increased uncertainty over Ukraine’s future,” after the US changed its stance towards Kiev under the current administration.

Trump has long promised to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict and has sought avenues to reach a peace deal. He has also pushed European NATO allies to take over the burden of militarily supporting Ukraine. Earlier this week, Washington reportedly froze critical arms deliveries to Kiev to focus on replenishing its own stockpiles, although the US president has insisted some military aid still continues.

The Trump administration “was a notable absence from the fund’s backers in December,” Bloomberg added.

In March of last year, BlackRock vice chairman Philipp Hildebrand indicated that the Ukraine Development Fund was on track to secure at least $2.5 billion from private investors, countries and other grant lenders. A consortium of such investors could finance at least $15 billion towards reconstruction work in Ukraine, he said.

However, a BlackRock spokesperson indicated that the firm is no longer engaged in “any active mandate” with Kiev, having finished its pro-bono consulting work with the Ukraine Development Fund last year, Bloomberg wrote.

The investment firm, which controls roughly $11.6 trillion in assets, owns substantial shares in military-industrial giants such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman, among many others. Armaments produced by these firms, which are supplied to Kiev by its Western backers, have seen extensive use in the conflict.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned foreign arms supplies to Kiev, arguing that they make pro-Ukrainian Western nations party to the conflict, which Russia views as a NATO proxy war. The Kremlin has stated that the recent freeze in US military aid to Kiev will accelerate settlement of the conflict.

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