Zelensky says Ukraine to implement all commitments to IMF

Cooperation with the IMF is important for Ukraine’s financial
stability and investment climate as other programs of financial support are
linked to the IMF program, Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters from Agence
France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press, as reported on the president’s
website on June 14. “Therefore, we will definitely do everything we had
promised,” he added. At the same time, he stated that it is unfair that the IMF
makes the same demands on Ukraine as on other states. “After all, Ukraine has
been at war for the eighth year already and has been forced to choose priority
areas for reform in a different way,” he said.

Danylo Hetmantsev, head of the financial committee of
the parliament and a member of the pro-Zelensky faction, also assured that
Ukraine would receive the next IMF tranche. Meanwhile, he reiterated his
intention to cease cooperation with the IMF in the future. He explained this by
the fact that “the IMF is lending money to the countries which are in deep
structural crisis,” podrobnosti.ua news site reported on June 11.

In other news, Zelensky vetoed the bill on electronic
declarations that the parliament voted last week (#4651).
Recall, at the last minute, MPs eased punishments for officials’ failure to
declare and allowed to not declare the properties of their family members. Such
last minute changes had not been agreed with Ukraine’s western partners.

Alexander Paraschiy: The key
impediment for the next IMF tranche seems to be Ukraine’s lack of efforts to
fight corruption. Clearly, the government should not expect any special
treatment from the IMF if it fails to deliver on its commitment in this area.

On the positive side, it is very likely that the
parliament will amend bill #4651 in line with Ukraine’s commitments. However, a
delay in the selection of a top anti-corruption prosecutor could lead to a
delay with the Stand-by program, in our view. According to reports from the NGO
Anticorruption Action Center, pro-presidential members of the prosecutor’s
selection committee are boycotting the process after international members of
the nomination committee disqualified two pro-presidential prosecutor
candidates on the criterion of integrity.

This shows the stubborn intention of pro-Zelensky
forces to have their own anti-corruption prosecutor at any price. However, in
this case, the price could be the relationships with the West. Thus far, we
continue to expect that the Ukrainian government will be able to find common
ground with the IMF in the next few weeks and will be able to count on a new
IMF tranche by late July.