Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko suspects donor nations are getting tired of sending aid to his country.
Marchenko was attending the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Marrakech, Morroco, on Saturday when he made the comments to Reuters. His country is currently awaiting the fulfillment of a $5.4 billion commitment from the IMF.
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“I see a lot of tiredness, I see a lot of weakness among our partners. They would like to forget about the war, but the war is still ongoing, full-scale,” Marchenko said. He went on to claim it is taking “twice the effort right now to convince our partners to provide us with support compared to the last annual meetings,” which were in April of last year.
During the IMF meetings earlier in the week, Marchenko shared that Ukraine’s economy is expected to grow by 5% next year. Still, the government has a budget gap of about $43 billion in 2024 amid its war with Russia. Saturday was the 596th day since Russia’s initial invasion of the country.
The European Union has plans for a $52.6 billion Ukraine disbursement lasting from 2024 through 2027. Ukraine is currently lobbying for $18 million of that money to be released next year. Most recently, the House passed a bill late last month that would provide Ukraine with $300 million in aid in addition to the cluster munitions promised earlier that month. The funding has split the Republican representatives, as 100 of the 221 voted for the measure.
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Further commitments are expected out of Japan and the United Kingdom, per Marchenko. He went on to blame “a geopolitical shift and internal political context in different countries” for the fatigue among foreign donors. In his opinion, there is still time to have discussions with “private creditors” as well.
At least 9,614 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, while another 17,535 have been injured, per data from the United Nations last month.
