The Cabinet of Ministers approved the attraction of another grant from the United States in the amount of $4.5 billion, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“The Cabinet of Ministers will approve the attraction of another grant from the United States in exchange for $4.5 billion, ” Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Tuesday.
According to the Prime Minister, this is a clear demonstration that the allies continue to help Ukraine bring victory closer.
Shmyhal said that the funds would be received through a fund created by the World Bank.
A grant from the Federal Republic of Germany in the amount of EUR1 billion went to the state budget of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine reported on Friday.
“The grant funds were transferred to the state budget through a special administrative account opened by the International Monetary Fund to send money from donor countries to help Ukraine,” the ministry said in a press release.
According to him, the proceeds will be used to finance priority budget expenditures during martial law.
In total, since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has already received EUR1.3 billion from Germany to support the financial and budgetary system, the Finance Ministry said.
Earlier this week, the Treasury announced that it had received a EUR446.8 million loan from the World Bank (WB) with a UK guarantee for EUR424.6 million, a US grant of $1.3 billion through a WB multi-donor account, and a loan from Japan for the equivalent of about $500 million.
In April 2022, the IMF decided to create an administrative account for crediting funds as part of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) from donor countries in favor of Ukraine. All funds raised using this account should be used to maintain the financial stability of Ukraine in the form of grants or credits (loans).
Germany became the second country to use this tool, after Canada, which provided a concessional loan of 1 billion Canadian dollars (the equivalent of $773 million) in the first half of June.
The government estimates the budget’s monthly deficit financing needs at $5 billion. Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko previously predicted that international financial support for Ukraine would increase to $4.8 billion in June from $1.5 billion in May, and thanks to funds received at the end of the month, it was close to this amount. According to the head of the Ministry of Finance, in July the government expects to maintain the same significant volumes of external financing as in June. In particular, the second tranche of a US grant of approximately $1.3 billion and an EU loan of EUR1 billion are expected to arrive.
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, which received the first grant from the United States on June 29 as part of a $7.5 billion state budget financing package, expects the next tranche to arrive in July.
“The support of our partners accelerates Ukraine’s victory. We have just received the first grant from the United States – $1.3 billion. We expect the next grant from the United States in July,” Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko wrote on Thursday night.
He clarified that the funds were received through the mechanism of the World Bank’s Multi-Donor Trust Fund as part of additional financing for the project “Public Expenditure Support to Ensure Sustainable Public Administration in Ukraine.”
Marchenko thanked the teams of the World Bank, the government, the Ministry of Finance and the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States for their well-coordinated work and the opportunity to receive these funds as quickly as possible.
In May, the US Congress passed a bill on the allocation of assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $40 billion, including $7.5 billion to finance the state budget.
Germany will allocate EUR1 billion in grant funding to Ukraine for priority government spending, the corresponding agreement between the governments was signed on June 24, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Serhiy Marchenko told
“I thank my friend German Finance Minister Christian Lindner for the speed in implementing this important decision. This financial support is more important than ever and will bring our victory closer,” the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance wrote on Facebook.
Earlier it was reported that these funds from Germany, presumably, will be provided through a special account administered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In April 2022, the IMF decided to create an administrative account for crediting funds as part of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) from donor countries in favor of Ukraine. All funds raised using this account should be used to maintain the financial stability of Ukraine in the form of grants or credits (loans).
Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom Vadym Prystaiko, on behalf of the Cabinet of Ministers, signed a Ukrainian-British framework agreement providing for the allocation of funds for the construction of eight missile boats, the acquisition of two minesweepers from the United Kingdom, and the creation of two naval bases in Ukraine, the ZN.UA publication said on Saturday.
The signed agreement details the financial side of the agreements, that is the loan totaling GBP 1.7 billion provided to Ukraine by the U.K. for ten years.
Thanks to the U.K., Ukraine covers the primary needs of the country’s naval forces, which must be ready to contain Russia’s aggression from the Black and Azov Seas, ZN.UA said.
Agreements on the development and strengthening of the Ukrainian Navy were reached a year ago. During the last year’s visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to London, a memorandum on strengthening cooperation between Ukraine and the United Kingdom in the military and military-technical sectors was signed. The memorandum stipulated the raising of financing from the UK’s export credit agency in the amount of GBP 1.25 billion. In the summer 2021, in Odesa, a memorandum on maritime partnership projects between the consortium of British industry and the Ukrainian Navy was signed.
Representatives of the Naftogaz Group along with the Institute for Partnership and Sustainable Development, on Tuesday at Interfax-Ukraine, announced the start of the Development Energy Grant Competition for the selection of 50 projects of territorial communities and the allocation of UAH 100,000 to them.
“Communities need a modern and high-quality tool that will allow them to develop, to implement development projects that will contribute to the sustainable development of the community and the entire region. It is also interesting and important for us when our regions of production are developing in parallel with our company or at the level,” head of the regional development projects department of JSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia of the Naftogaz group Vitaliy Chudak said.
According to him, this issue is relevant today due to the completion of the processes of decentralization and the increase of local responsibility.
Chudak also said the projects should aim to achieve one of three sustainable development goals: good health and well-being, quality education and sustainable development of cities and communities.
“The common goal is the development of those communities with which we will work, setting benchmarks for other communities that will be familiar with successful implementation cases,” head of the NGO Institute for Partnership and Sustainable Development, project management and fundraising expert Daria Mustafina said.
According to her, this competition is a good example of introducing a close connection between business, government and society and their interaction for a common goal.
The organizers of the competition said that 242 communities from 11 regions of Ukraine are already participating in its first stage, which will last until February 20, of which 90 will move on to the next stage. Six months are allotted for the implementation of the winning projects, and the presentation of the finished projects is scheduled for the end of October 2021.
