Ukraine has received more than €2 billion ($2.2 billion) in funding from the International Monetary Fund, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, said on Wednesday on the messaging platform Telegram.

Mr Shmyhal said that the tranche was part of an ongoing loan programme amounting to some €15 billion,

“It would be used to fund vital government expenditures such as welfare spending and salaries for state employees, including doctors and teachers,” he said.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kiev has received more than €80 billion in aid from foreign partners for its government’s expenditures, Ukrainian figures show.

The British magazine ‘The Economist’ reported on Sunday that the country has in August faced a possible default.

It said that a number of private lenders were expected to demand a resumption of debt repayments suspended at the beginning of the conflict.

The Ukrainian government said it was in no position to begin repaying loans and that it’s aiming to freeze future payments or restructure its debt.

Kiev’s international allies have already frozen repayments of government loans until at least 2027.

According to The Economist’s calculations, Ukraine’s debt burden is expected to rise to an estimated 94 per cent of its gross domestic product by the end of the year.

In the eurozone, any figure beyond 60 per cent is considered unstable.

 (dpa/NAN)