The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday it reached a staff-level agreement on a new four-year, $8.2 billion program for Ukraine, Reuters reported, as the country faces mounting fiscal pressures due to the ongoing war with Russia. The program replaces the existing $15.6 billion Extended Fund Facility approved in March 2023 and is intended to help Kyiv maintain macroeconomic stability and strengthen public finances.
IMF official Gavin Gray, who led the fund’s team visit to Ukraine, said the program is expected to attract large-scale external support to close Ukraine’s financing gaps, which are estimated at around $136.5 billion for the 2026-2029 period. Ukrainian officials view an IMF program as critical for securing funding from other partners, including potential reparations loans, as most government revenues continue to be directed toward the war effort.
Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the agreement demonstrated the resilience of Ukraine’s economy despite the conflict. She pledged to continue reforms and called for support in passing the 2026 state budget, noting that it had been prepared in line with the framework of the new IMF program.
The IMF indicated the program could be submitted to its Executive Board for approval once prior actions are completed and financing assurances from donors are secured. Meanwhile, the European Union has been working to finalize a plan to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, after a summit last month failed to agree on using $162 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets in Europe as a loan.
The previous IMF program, agreed in 2023, had assumed the war would end by late 2025. Ongoing conflict has rendered earlier debt sustainability analyses outdated. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy recently expressed readiness to advance a U.S.-backed framework to end the war, emphasizing caution over accepting a deal heavily weighted toward Russian terms.
Ukraine has received approximately $10.6 billion under the existing program so far, according to the Finance Ministry. Ukrainian dollar bonds saw gains in trading, with 2034, 2035, and 2036 maturities rising over a cent each, reflecting market optimism following the announcement, according to LSEG data.
