Foreign Policy: will there be enough to save Ukraine a new US aid and an IMF loan?

Ukraine received an injection into 17,5 billion dollars on Wednesday from the IMF, writes Foreign Policy.

But the biggest threat to the country's economy—the fight against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine—still looms, and a new U.S. aid package falls short of what Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko believes is needed to defeat them. David Francis and Jamila Trindle.

The White House said the United States will send an additional $75 million worth of military equipment to Ukraine. “The money will go, among other things, to drones, mortar detection radars, armored jeeps, walkie-talkies, field first aid kits, but not to weapons,” the journalists emphasize.

“The money is intended to replenish Kyiv's almost empty treasury and to reassure investors and depositors that the country is not heading towards bankruptcy. But if hostilities flare up again in eastern Ukraine, it is unclear whether even an expanded aid program will be enough to revive an economy that shrank nearly 12% last year.

“This program is large-scale and fraught with risks, especially conflict in the east of the country,” said IMF head Christine Lagarde. “I am encouraged that the truce reached last month in Minsk appears to be largely holding for now, and I hope that further casualties can be avoided.”

Robert Kahn, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (USA), who has worked at the World Bank and the IMF, argues that this new aid package, like the previous one, “is unlikely to be enough.”