The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva will travel to Kyiv in the coming months, as Ukraine seeks long-term financial support in the fifth year of Russiaʼs full-scale invasion.
Ukraine’s war-weakened economy is entering another year of uncertainty, with no clear path yet towards significantly decreasing the budget deficit as full-scale war continues and ceasefire talks fail to materialize. A new IMF program is being considered as one option to help address the country’s financing needs.
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Georgieva intends to visit Ukraine, though the exact time needs to be determined, the IMF told Bloomberg News. She visited Ukraine last in February 2023.
“Our staff remains actively engaged with the Ukrainian authorities on macroeconomic policies aimed at maintaining stability, financing essential expenditures, and restoring debt sustainability, with a view to continued IMF support,” an IMF spokesperson said.
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Ukraine is seeking a second IMF loan since the financing aimed for the end of hostilities is no longer relevant, as Russia extends the full-scale invasion of Ukraine into its fourth year.
The size of a new IMF loan has not been formally discussed, but early estimates put it at about $8 billion, Bloomberg previously wrote.
The IMF has supported Ukraine by way of a four-year Extended Fund Facility program approved in March 2023, worth around $15.6 billion. This is the first IMF program in history granted to a country involved in an active war. The IMF changed its rules to allow lending to countries facing “exceptionally high uncertainty,” its March 2023 press release says.
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Under the European Union’s plan, the bloc would borrow funds from international deposit organization Euroclear in Belgium that have matured into cash, and the money would in turn be loaned to Ukraine.
A visit to Kyiv by Georgieva, who finalized the first IMF package during her trip two years ago, would signal strong support for further aid to a country whose economy and infrastructure have been devastated by Russia’s invasion, Bloomberg wrote.
The IMF’s negotiations with officials in Kyiv on a new loan are expected to start in November, people familiar with the deliberations previously told the media outlet.
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The EU is also considering a new plan to provide loans to Ukraine using the cash balance from frozen Russian assets, referred to as “reparation loans,” Bloomberg previously wrote.
Georgieva met President Volodymyr Zelensky in New York during the UN General Assembly in September. Talks on the new package will likely involve assurances from Ukraine’s allies to access frozen Russian central bank assets, which could provide tens of billions of dollars. Legal and logistical issues among G7 and EU countries remain under discussion.
Previously, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko told Ukraine’s lawmakers that for 2026, the identified need for external financing currently amounts to $18.1 billion, based on an estimated average US dollar annual exchange rate of Hr. 45.7, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
The estimate differs from the NBU’s figure of an “unidentified” gap of $12.7 billion for Ukraine’s needs in 2026. Ukraine’s central bank does not publish its forecast on the exchange rate.
Ukraine spends around 60% of its budget on the war effort against Russia and depends heavily on Western allies to cover pensions, public sector wages, and humanitarian programs.
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In the first quarter of 2025, the country spent $20.8 billion – roughly 75% of its total state budget – on defense against Russia, the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) Institute estimated.