Ukraine's unmet external financing needs for 2026-2027 is about $60 bln – Finance Minister
The pressure on Ukraine’s public finances remains acute due to the continuation of active hostilities, with the unmet need for external financing for 2026-2027 reaching about $60 billion, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said during the eighth meeting of the Ministerial Roundtable on Support for Ukraine, which took place on October 15 in Washington.
"To ensure the sustainability of public finances in 2026-2027, it is necessary to mobilize additional resources, in particular, through the use of frozen Russian assets. We are already working with partners to make this possible," he was quoted as saying in a press release from the ministry on Thursday.
Marchenko stressed the importance of launching new cooperation programs and a mechanism for using Russian assets now to balance the 2026 budget and beyond.
According to the release, the Ministry of Finance team is working with the governments of partner countries to agree on all the details and launch the Reparations Loan mechanism, which involves using frozen assets to attract funds for Ukraine’s priority needs. Marchenko stressed that it is necessary to reach a political agreement on the use of these assets in the near future.
Active work is also underway with the IMF to develop a new cooperation program that will best reflect Ukraine’s current and medium-term priorities. It will include measures aimed at supporting stability, financing critical expenditures, and restoring public debt sustainability.
Marchenko thanked the partners for their financial support, which has exceeded $152 billion since February 2022, and in 2025 already reaches $36.9 billion.
In addition to the needs of financing the state budget of Ukraine for 2026-2027, the participants of the "round table" also discussed support for the energy sector, which continues to be hit by constant Russian attacks on critical infrastructure.
The event was co-chaired by the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, and the International Monetary Fund.
As reported, Marchenko previously estimated the Ukrainian budget’s external financing needs in 2026 at $45.5 billion, and the total amount of external financing required for the period of the new four-year program with the IMF is from $150 to $170 billion. The current four-year EFF program with the IMF of $15.6 billion, which was approved in March 2023, initially provided for a total amount of external financing for Ukraine with the participation of international partners of $115 billion in the base case and $140 billion in the negative case, but as the war dragged on, these figures were increased to $153 billion and $165 billion, respectively.
