DISINFO: IMF has abandoned Ukraine and cut its support
SUMMARY
Volodmyr Zelenskyy and his team were in the position of the Indians who sold Manhattan for a necklace and “firewater”. Despite the law on the sale of land adopted by the Verkhovna Rada for the sake of an IMF loan, the Fund has suddenly changed the rules of the game with Ukraine. The IMF has abandoned the previously agreed three-year EFF extended financing programme. This means Ukraine will not receive $8 billion promised by Zelenskyy. Instead of a three-year loan, the IMF will throw to [the government in] Kyiv a small bone: the 18-months stand-by programme.
RESPONSE
This disinformation message advances pro-Kremlin narratives undermining the statehood of Ukraine and casting it as abandoned by its partners. According to the IMF spokesman Gerry Rice, the IMF and Ukraine have decided to shift their focus to a new 18-month stand-by programme, instead of the previously agreed EFF programme, to deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Considering the large-scale global financial and economic crisis caused by the spread of COVID-19 and general economic uncertainty about the duration and intensity of the pandemic, the IMF has changed its approach to the duration of programmes with countries and offers to continue cooperation with Ukraine on a shorter Stand-By Arrangement," the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine explained in an official statement. The Ministry has also confirmed that under the new programme, the size of financial assistance to Ukraine will not change: "The size of the programme for the relevant periods remains unchanged. The main difference between these programmes is the term of their implementation: Stand-by is designed for 1.5 years, while EFF for 3 years."