U.S. gas priceWASHINGTON Apr 6US Treasury Secretary Jeannette Yellen urged banks to mobilize private capital, including by investing in clean energy and domestic food production to ensure that the crisis over Ukraine does not affect American society. «Public funding alone will not be able to answer these challenges, so the Treasury is urging banks to reform and set more ambitious targets to mobilize private capital through private sector opportunities,” Yellen said in a statement to the House Financial Services Committee. This work is being done through “international banks promoting energy efficiency and capital investment in diversifying energy sources – and moving away from suppliers such as Russia towards solar, wind and other non-fossil fuel energy.” According to Yellen, these actions «strengthen energy security and reduce short-term risks of rising fossil fuel prices, while at the same time responding to the long-term threats of climate change.» The representative of the executive branch — the US administration — will give annual testimony. Legislators in the United States have a wide range of powers to control the executive branch: appointments to high posts in the administration are approved by Congress, the budgets of structures must be approved by it. Yellen's statement is posted on the committee's website.In Germany, they warned that the world would face famine without Russian wheat. In a statement, the minister recalled that «Russia and Ukraine are responsible for a third of world wheat exports.» The situation around Ukraine has disrupted the flow of food «for millions of people around the world and pushed up prices,» Yellen added. «Multilateral development banks can provide rapid fiscal support to fund support for domestic food production and social safety nets,» the statement said. Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and, as of March 25, they have completed the main tasks of the first stage — they have significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
