The Group of Seven agreed on Thursday to give Ukraine $18.4 billion to pay its debts, sums that Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said were just as crucial as “the weapons you deliver” in speeding up Kyiv’s win over Russia.

At the G7 finance leaders’ conference in Germany, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters: “‘We support Ukraine,’ the message said. We’ll band together with the resources they’ll require to get through this.'”

Shmyhal had said on Twitter earlier on Thursday, “Partner support would hasten our win… We shall triumph despite Russia’s efforts to damage our economy!”

More weapons pledges were made on Thursday, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announcing that he had authorised $100 million in additional US weaponry, equipment, and supplies for Ukraine.

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After a nearly three-month siege of Mariupol, Kyiv announced that its garrison in a steelworks in Mariupol had been ordered to stand down, marking Russia’s biggest success since the invasion began.

However, Russian soldiers have lost ground elsewhere, having been driven out of northern Ukraine and the area around Kiev at the end of March, and from the outskirts of Kharkiv this month.

In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden voiced his support behind Sweden and Finland’s ambitions to join NATO on Thursday in Washington.

The action by Finland and Sweden reverses decades of military non-alignment and is the most significant change in European security in decades.

Turkey has opposed, accusing the two Nordic countries of harbouring Kurdish extremists. However, Biden and other European officials expressed confidence that Turkey’s worries could be addressed.

“I think we’re going to be OK,” Biden told reporters while receiving Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö at the White House.

“We have told partners that we would say no to Finland and Sweden joining NATO,” Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan stated late Wednesday, adding, “NATO is a security alliance, and we cannot accept terrorists in it.”

“We condemn terrorism in all its forms and we are actively engaged in battling it,” Niinisto said of Finland’s commitment to Turkey’s security.