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The US has donated $20bn (£15bn) to Ukraine, funded by profits from seized Russian assets.
The economic support forms a major part of a $50bn (£39bn) package agreed by G7 member countries announced in June.
Financing aid through frozen assets means Russia has to “bear the costs of its illegal war, rather than taxpayers,” said US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
It is a matter of weeks before US President Joe Biden will be replaced by Donald Trump, who has said he wants quickly end the war in Ukraine upon taking office.
The president-elect has characterized financial support for kyiv as a drain on American resources, raising questions about whether aid will continue under the new administration.
The US Treasury said on Tuesday it had transferred the $20 billion to a World Bank fund, where it will be available for Ukraine to withdraw.
The money managed by the World Bank cannot be used for military purposes.
The administration had hoped to dedicate half of the money to military aid, Reuters news agency reported, but this would have required congressional approval.
There were months of delay, amid political disputes in the House of Representatives, before In April, $61 billion in military aid was approved for Ukraine.
The $20 billion will give the country “a critical injection of support” as it defends “against an unprovoked war of aggression,” Yellen said in a statement Tuesday.
This follows months of discussion between the United States and its allies, including the EU, over how to use assets worth about $325 billion that have been frozen since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. .
In October, the G7 agreed to use the interest generated by the assets – around $3 billion a year – to finance $50 billion in credit over 30 years. Payments were expected to begin at the end of the year.
The EU has committed more than €18bn (£15bn) financed in the same way.
The $50 billion is intended to ensure that Ukraine has “the resources it needs to sustain the emergency services, hospitals and other bases of its brave resistance,” Yellen said.
It comes at a critical time for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces, which have recently been ceding territory.
Moscow has been regaining ground in eastern Ukraine and in Kursk in Russia, where Ukrainian forces launched an offensive over the summer, while Ukrainian troops have painted a gloomy panorama of the fronts of the war.
