External financing in Ukraine tops $172 bln since end-Feb 2022 - Finance Ministry
MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - External financing in Ukraine since the end of February 2022 has exceeded $172 billion, Ukrainian media quoted Deputy Finance Minister Olga Zykova as saying at a business forum in Luxembourg.
"This is definitely more than $40 billion a year, which is the minimum required to maintain public services for citizens. This is significant because we have a large economy and a large country," Zykova said.
This year's state budget allots 27.2% of GDP, which is over $61 billion, for the defense and security sector, leaving less than $40 billion to cover social expenditures, Zykova said.
Ukraine needs external financing "in a more predictable and systemic manner" for reconstruction and rapid recovery, she said.
"Speaking of rapid recovery and reconstruction, we can't do anything without our principal partners, primarily international financial institutions," she said.
Having to balance defense and social expenditures, Ukraine would prefer receiving concessionary financing from its foreign partners rather than trying to cover everything from the state budget, she said.
According to the Ukrainian Finance Ministry's data available on its website as of March 4, 2026, financing from international partners since the beginning of the crisis has amounted to $172.94 billion, of which $56.94 billion came from the European Union, $30.24 billion from the United States, and $42.74 billion under the Economic Resilience Action (ERA) program.
Significant amounts also came from the International Monetary Fund ($14.88 billion), Japan ($8.98 billion), the World Bank ($6.02 billion), Canada ($5.41 billion), the United Kingdom ($3.03 billion), and Germany ($1.67 billion).
The Ukrainian budget also received $0.72 billion from the European Investment Bank, $0.52 billion from Norway, $0.44 billion from France, $0.33 billion from Italy, $0.32 billion from the Netherlands, $0.24 billion from the Council of Europe Development Bank, and $0.1 billion from Spain and South Korea each.
The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) new four-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for $8.1 billion, of which the first tranche of $1.5 billion has already been disbursed, envisages that, in the baseline scenario of the crisis ending by the end of 2026, Ukraine's external financing needs during the program will amount to $136.5 billion. In the negative scenario of the crisis continuing into 2027 and gradually transforming into a frozen conflict in 2028, they are estimated at $146.3 billion.
Under the baseline scenario of the program, Ukraine is expected to attract $52 billion in external financing in 2026, $43.7 billion in 2027, and $22.5 billion in 2028. In the negative scenario, Ukraine's needs would increase to $53.7 billion in 2026, $45.3 billion in 2027, and $24.3 billion in 2028.
