Svyrydenko’s main objective will be to ramp up the country’s domestic weapons production as a hedge against the risk of losing outside help
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ANDREA SHALAL
Ukraine’s new prime minister said she’s likely to seek more financing from the International Monetary Fund as she sets out to shore up the nation’s fiscal needs with no end in sight to Russia’s war.
Yuliia Svyrydenko, a 39-year-old ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy who became Ukraine’s second female head of government last week, laid out the budget squeeze in stark terms. Global donors have so far earmarked only half of the estimated $75 billion that the war-strained budget requires over the next two years, she said.
In particular, with the IMF loan program worth about $16 billion set to expire in 2027, the uncertainty over the duration of the war is likely to lead to discussions of a new plan during the lender’s review next month, the premier said.
“If the baseline scenario assumes the war will continue into next year, it is very likely we will have a new IMF program,” Svyrydenko told Bloomberg News in her first interview since taking office. Economic and military scenarios will be on the agenda during the August visit, “to determine whether a new program would be reasonable and what its likely parameters could be,” she said.
In its fourth year, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine shows no sign of ebbing amid intensifying missile-and-drone strikes and a grinding march forward on the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front. Zelenskiy is seeking to capitalize on a mood shift in Washington, with President Donald Trump turning against the Russian leader with a fresh pledge to send more weaponry to Kyiv.
The Ukrainian leader’s cabinet overhaul last week was part of an effort to move into position presidential loyalists who can potentially win favor with Trump. Svyrydenko took office 11 weeks after her team at the Economy Ministry secured a deal with Washington over access to Ukraine’s natural resources.
The new premier said she also planned to speak with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with whom she worked intensively on the minerals deal, in the coming days remotely to discuss potential financial aid. The new cabinet will also seek to cooperate with the US on weapons purchases — including Patriot air-defense systems — and joint drone production.
That may include construction of plants in the US to produce unmanned aerial vehicles, Svyrydenko said.
“The idea is that we are, indeed, a strong nation — I believe one of the world’s best examples of a unified battlefield for testing technologies,” the premier said.
Moving Quickly
In addition to bolstering Ukraine’s finances, Svyrydenko’s main objective will be to ramp up the country’s domestic weapons production as a hedge against the risk of losing outside help. But she signaled that — given the urgency of the war — the window of opportunity “would be very brief.”
“Our task is to deliver across most areas within a very short period of time,” Svyrydenko, who succeeded Denys Shmyhal, whose five-year term was a record for Ukraine. She said she aimed to “accomplish something over the next couple of months.”
Any new IMF deal would be part of that. Talks for a new program are expected this year, according to officials familiar with the thinking at the fund and Ukraine’s central bank. The Washington-based lender signed off on the current lending two years ago, breaking with precedent not to lend to a country at war.
Svyrydenko pledged to address all outstanding issues, including anti-corruption measures, under the current program and the so-called Ukraine Facility, the European Union’s financial assistance, by the end of the year.
The difficulty of fighting corruption was underscored Monday. Hours after Svyrydenko spoke, Ukrainian law enforcement arrested two investigators as part of sweeping raids on the premises of anti-corruption officials. An unnamed employee of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, known as NABU, was detained in Kyiv under suspicion of spying for Russia, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Monday in a statement.
In the interview, Svyrydenko sought to play down the issue of corruption, citing polls showing that while a large majority believe graft is widespread, far fewer have encountered such activity.
“To be frank, within Ukrainian society and certain social groups, the issue is being amplified and overemphasized,” the premier said. Outside observers, on the other hand, “assess Ukraine based on different metrics,” she said.
She also defended the government’s rejection of a nominee for the Bureau of Economic Security, a move demanded by the IMF and the European Commission, even though the candidate was approved by a selection committee.
The cabinet “acted in line with established procedures: we received the nomination from the selection commission, voted collectively, and sent the decision back to the commission,” Svyrydenko said.
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Published on July 22, 2025
