Prime Minister: We expect Ukraine to receive USD 50 billion as soon as possible from the proceeds of frozen russian assets

Regular and predictable financial assistance is one of the key prerequisites for strengthening Ukraine and our victory over the enemy. This was emphasised by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in his online speech at the Ministerial Roundtable Discussion for Support to Ukraine at the World Bank.

The event is being held in Washington, DC, for the sixth time and gathered together World Bank President Ajay Banga, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, ministers and governors of national banks, and heads of international financial organisations.

According to Denys Shmyhal, since the beginning of russia's full-scale aggression, Ukraine has received direct budgetary assistance from partner countries, the EU and IFIs in the amount of over USD 98 billion.

"Thanks to this fact, we have maintained economic and financial stability and have managed to finance priority budget expenditures. This freed up internal resources to be directed to the security and defence sector," the Prime Minister said, adding that Ukraine expects to receive more than USD 16.5 billion in external financing by the end of 2024.

At the same time, the Prime Minister noted that the external financing needs for 2025 are also significant - USD 38.4 billion. He noted that they should be covered by the Ukraine Facility programme from the European Union, the IMF's EFF, US assistance and contributions from other partners.

"Meanwhile, we expect Ukraine to receive USD 50 billion as soon as possible from the proceeds of russia's frozen assets. These are additional funds that will help us cover other budget expenditures," said Denys Shmyhal.

The Prime Minister also thanked the World Bank for establishing the Financial Intermediary Fund to support Ukraine (FIF).

In his speech, Denys Shmyhal raised another important issue - the need to strengthen sanctions against the aggressor.

"Unfortunately, in July, russia rose in the ranking and became a High Income Country on a par with the most developed countries in the world. Last week, the World Bank upped its forecast for russia's economic growth in 2024 and 2025. We constantly find Western components in the remnants of russian missiles that kill Ukrainians. This means that the sanctions system does not work as effectively as it should," the Head of Government noted.

In his opinion, we should act decisively to reduce russia's ability to continue its aggressive war. He called for tougher primary and secondary sanctions on russia's financial sector, oil and gas sales, as well as technology sales.

Meanwhile, despite the war, Ukraine continues to pursue reforms. Denys Shmyhal stressed that the Reform Matrix project had been created to coordinate the implementation of reforms. Everyone can see the list of changes made and to be made by the Government of Ukraine on the website.

"We are moving forward. And we expect our partners to move forward just as quickly. Ukraine must have adequate resources to defend itself and win the war. Supporting Ukraine is an investment in global peace and global security," the Prime Minister concluded.