By David Lawder

KOENIGSWINTER (Germany) (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen stated that the G7 finance chiefs on Thursday agreed to give Ukraine financial resources to fight against Russia’s invasion. She also said that the policymakers were determined to achieve their inflation targets.

After the G7 meeting of central bank governors and finance ministers, Yellen spoke to journalists. She declined to confirm the $18.4billion figure that was pledged by the group in its draft communique, which Reuters saw.

The meeting concludes on Friday.

Yellen claimed that Ukraine’s funding commitments during the meeting were more than the $15 billion Kiev estimated it needed over the next three month to cover lost revenue as a result of the war.

The U.S. Senate is expected to approve a $40 billion aid package this week. It would include $7.5B in economic assistance, and 9Billion euros from the European Commission for Ukraine. Additional amounts were pledged by other countries such as Canada and Germany.

The message from the United States was “We support Ukraine.” Yellen stated that she would work with them to provide the necessary resources to help them get through it.

While she stated that the topic of high global inflation was important, no policymaker had indicated they are considering increasing their inflation targets.

“The critical importance for central banks to take the necessary actions to demonstrate their commitment to inflation targets they have set was raised,” Yellen stated.

Yellen indicated that the official felt economic conditions hadn’t changed “so fundamentally” that it was worthwhile to remove what it felt had become a stable anchored list of inflation expectations.

According to her, she believes that the U.S. Federal Reserve can achieve a soft landing of the economy that doesn’t cause a recession. However, how Fed officials do this will be up to them.

Discussions on mechanisms to lower Russia’s revenue from its oil exports to Europe were very limited, Yellen indicated, noting that they are still open to the possibility.

U.S. officials are considering imposing tariffs upon Russian oil in an attempt to reduce the revenue Moscow is able to collect, while maintaining Russian crude supply on the market. EU officials plan to implement a gradual embargo until the end of the year.

Yellen stated that a buyer’s cartel which would not purchase oil at certain prices might be successful if the group is sufficiently large.

She added that “nothing can be distilled into an obvious strategy.”