Today, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the Bill on Amendments to the State Budget for 2020 with the purpose of ensuring measures to counteract COVID-19 acute respiratory disease and its consequences.

The draft contains a series of actions aimed at the social protection of citizens, including the creation of a special stabilization fund to combat coronavirus and its effects.

In particular, payments to medical and other workers involved in the fight against COVID-19 are increased, social assistance to pensioners is provided, support is given to people who have lost their jobs through quarantine restrictions, and so on.

The main indicators of changes included in the State Budget 2020 were agreed with the International Monetary Fund.

According to Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko, the budget includes resources from international financial institutions, inter alia direct budget support by the IMF.

“The support of our international partners is rather critical as it enables us to fully finance all necessary expenditures, first of all, physicians' salaries, social protection, infrastructure costs. We expect the Parliament to vote in support of the so-called banking bill, which will accelerate the receipt of IMF assistance,” the Minister of Finance said.