The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed on Wednesday to release a $15.6 billion loan package to Ukraine, touting Kyiv’s strong economic policies and are reportedly “fighting corruption.”
Ukraine’s finance ministry praised the initiative, saying the program will “help to mobilize financing from Ukraine’s international partners, as well as to maintain macrofinancial stability and ensure the path to post-war reconstruction after Ukrainian victory in the war against the aggressor.”
The four-year loan program will focus on helping Ukraine close its massive budget deficit, easing the pressure to print money to use for spending, according to a statement from the IMF.
The loan program is not typical of previous IMF practices of lending to a country at war, due to circumstances of “exceptionally high uncertainty.”
Ukraine has faced multiple allegations of corruption at the highest levels of government since and before the war started.
As Breitbart reported:
In January nine senior government officials were purged in the war-torn country as part of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s response to those allegations that continue to dog his administration.
Ukraine’s cabinet sacked four deputy ministers and five regional governors.
The inflow of tens of billions of dollars in cash and military hardware since has done nothing to assuage the fears of critics even as the Pentagon has publicly backed the Zelensky administration, claiming there is no evidence any of the billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars spent on weapons and aid sent to Ukraine has been lost to corruption or diverted into criminal hands.
According to a recent report from Transparency International, Ukraine was ranked as the second most corrupt country in Europe.
The news comes almost a month after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the Biden administration would send an additional $10 billion in economic aid to Ukraine.
The Daily Fetched reported last month that the total U.S. economic and military aid sent to Ukraine had surpassed $115 billion to $200 billion.
Just what we need in the post-pandemic recovery.
“Providing economic assistance has made Ukraine’s resistance possible by supporting the home front, funding critical public services, and helping keep the government running,” Yellen said.
“In the coming months, we expect to provide around $10 billion in additional economic support for Ukraine,” Yellen added.
“Putin himself thought he would achieve a victory at minimal cost… One year later, Putin’s war has been a strategic failure for the Kremlin. Ukraine still stands,” she said.
READ MORE: POLL Shows Just 19% Of Americans Have Confidence In Joe Biden’s Handling Of Ukraine Conflict
