WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund on Friday said its executive board approved a $2.2 billion disbursement to Ukraine for budget support and urged external donors to keep up support for the war-torn country amid a deteriorating economic outlook.
The IMF’s approval of the fourth review of the four-year, Extended Fund Facility brings total disbursements to $7.6 billion, nearly half of the $15.6 billion program approved in March 2023.
The IMF said in a statement that Ukraine’s performance under the extended fund facility program remains strong despite challenging conditions, with quantitative targets met and structural benchmarks implemented on time or with a short delay.
While Ukraine’s economy performed strongly during the first quarter of 2024, the outlook for the second half of 2024 and into 2025 has deteriorated, amid increased Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure and deteriorating consumer and business sentiment as the war evolves.
The fund adjusted downward its 2024 GDP growth forecast for Ukraine to a range of 2.5-3.5 percent, compared to a prior forecast of 3.2 percent in the April World Economic Outlook.
The IMF program is part of a package of external support, mostly from donor countries that it estimates at about $122 billion over the four-year program window. The IMF said a downside scenario would require $141 billion in external financing.
Neither estimate includes the potential proceeds from a
$50 billion loan
that the G7 industrial democracies have agreed to grant Ukraine, backed by the earnings from frozen Russian assets, said Gavin Gray, the IMF’s Ukraine mission chief.
Gray told reporters that the IMF would reassess Ukraine’s financing framework should the loan be completed, but it was important that the use of Russian assets has “sufficient legal underpinnings” and does not undermine the functioning of the global financial system.
“Above all, continued support from all external partners is essential for Ukraine to sustain the progress on growth and stability, which has been achieved over the past year,” Gray said. “Without these resources, the hard-won macro-stabilization gains could be jeopardized.”
Gray said that he did not expect the weaker economic outlook to have a material impact on Ukraine’s negotiations with bondholders to restructure its debt, which are based on a medium-term framework that remains largely unchanged. He added that there have recently been “intensifying discussions” with bondholders and the IMF expects a completion of the negotiations in coming weeks.
IMF approves $2.2bn disbursement to Ukraine after loan review
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IMF approves $2.2bn disbursement to Ukraine after loan review
Ukraine says Russian forces advanced in key stronghold
Russian forces have been pushing against outnumbered Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region
KYIV: Russian forces have advanced over a key waterway in the eastern Ukrainian stronghold of Chasiv Yar, a Ukrainian military official said, marking a setback for Kyiv’s embattled forces.
The town of Chasiv Yar, which had an estimated pre-war population of around 12,000 people, sits on a strategic hilltop and its capture would likely speed Russian advances deeper in the war-battered Donetsk region.
“The enemy managed to break into our line of defense, but there is no critical failure and we are not about to lose Chasiv Yar. Fierce fighting continues now,” a spokesman for Ukraine’s 24th brigade told state-run media.
The spokesman Ivan Petrychak said that while Russian troops had crossed the canal on the eastern edge of the city Ukrainian troops were containing the advance.
Russian forces have been pushing against outnumbered Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia.
If Moscow captures the town, it would threaten some of the largest population centers in the industrial region, like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
There have been sporadic reports that Russian forces have previously crossed the canal, which serves as a de facto front line, in Chasiv Yar, and Ukraine has claimed to have fought them back.
Russian drone and artillery attacks meanwhile killed five people, including a child, in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Sumy and Donetsk, officials said Tuesday.
Sumy lies across the border from Kursk in Russia, where Ukrainian troops launched a major offensive in August and have been holding swathes of territory.
“Three people, including one child, died as a result of a night-time attack by enemy drones on residential buildings,” regional authorities said, referring to the city of Sumy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for fresh support from Kyiv’s Western partners to help his forces protect towns and cities.
“This Russian terror can be overcome only through unity with the world,” he said, urging allies to supply more weapons, including air defense systems.
He also called for “investments in weapons production in Ukraine” and “long-range strikes on Russian military logistics, military airfields and bases of Russian troops.”
Separately, emergency services in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces are steadily advancing, said two people had been killed and another wounded by Russian shelling on the town of Myrnograd.
Moscow’s defense ministry claimed its latest advances in the region on Tuesday, saying its forces had captured the abandoned frontline settlement of Novosadove in the Donetsk region.
Ukraine’s air force said 60 Russian drones in total had been detected in Ukrainian airspace overnight and into Tuesday morning and that 42 were destroyed.
Sumy has been under persistent bombardment since the beginning of the war in 2022, when Russian forces briefly captured sectors of the industrial territory before being pushed back.
Authorities said more than two dozen Russian drones had been shot down there overnight.
The Ukrainian operation in Kursk is part of a broader roadmap to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine recently outlined by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In occupied southern Ukraine, Russian-installed officials said a Ukrainian drone attack on the town of Energodar, home to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, killed one person.
South Africa sees Russia as a valued ally, Ramaphosa tells Putin
- “We are going to have important discussions here in Kazan within the BRICS family,” Ramaphosa said
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa sees Russia as a valued ally, President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a bilateral meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, on the eve of the BRICS summit of emerging economies that will take place in the Russian city of Kazan.
“We continue to see Russia as a valued ally, as a valued friend who supported us right from the beginning, from the days of our struggle against apartheid,” Ramaphosa said, according to a clip of the two leaders’ meeting shared on social media by South Africa’s government news agency.
“We are going to have important discussions here in Kazan within the BRICS family,” the South African president added.
Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia vow to carry on fight against illegal migration
- The leaders recognized their efforts to cut the number of migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Africa
- Migrants typically move on to richer countries in western Europe, like Germany
KOMARNO, Slovakia: Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia will continue joint efforts to curb illegal migration into the European Union, their leaders said on Tuesday, adding that more EU funds were needed.
Meeting in Komarno, Slovakia, on the Hungarian border, the leaders recognized their efforts to cut the number of migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, who have come via the so-called Balkan route that passes through Serbia and into the EU via Hungary.
Migrants typically move on to richer countries in western Europe, like Germany.
“This year, there are 80 percent fewer migrants (in Serbia) than last year,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said after meeting his Slovak and Hungarian counterparts Robert Fico and Viktor Orban.
“We will continue to work together and I believe that the results will be good.”
Illegal migration remains a key political problem across Europe nearly a decade after the crisis in 2015, when around 1 million people arrived in the bloc. Arrivals last year were around a third of that figure.
Orban said asylum applications must be assessed before someone is allowed to enter the EU, saying this model, used in Hungary, was the only one that worked against illegal migration.
Hotspots set up in the last safe countries for migrants, for example in Africa, could be a mass solution, he said.
Italy last week began working with EU non-member Albania by sending migrants there to have their asylum requests processed, a scheme to deter boat crossings which other EU leaders have said could be a model.
Vucic said Serbia, which is not an EU member, would never agree to create hotspots for illegal migrants on its territory.
The number of illegal crossings in the western Balkans fell 79 percent year-on-year to just under 17,000 in the first nine months of 2024, according to data from border agency Frontex.
Fico, who hosted the summit, called the fight against illegal migration an absolute priority and said illegal migration had negative effects on Europe.
“It was a topic of discussion today that in planning the next EU budget after 2027 we have to insist that a substantial part of the budget needs to be devoted to fight illegal migration, because it is seriously threatening us,” he said.
Indonesia calls for UNSC intervention over Israeli siege of northern Gaza
- Israeli forces have targeted healthcare facilities, including the Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahiya
- New President Prabowo Subianto had reiterated Indonesian support for Palestine in inaugural speech
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s new government called on the UN Security Council on Tuesday to take “decisive action” to end Israel’s war on Gaza, as Tel Aviv further tightens its deadly siege of the enclave’s northern region.
Over the past two weeks, Israeli forces have cut the entry of any medical and food aid to northern Gaza as they escalated air and ground attacks targeting people and healthcare facilities, while further driving hundreds of thousands of people trapped there to the verge of starvation.
Under the leadership of newly inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto, who was sworn in on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Israel to stop attacking the besieged enclave.
“Indonesia demands that Israel immediately stop its attacks across all of Gaza, particularly northern Gaza, and urges the UN Security Council to take decisive action to end the war without delay,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Indonesia strongly condemns the total blockade and Israeli attacks that have caused severe hunger and the deaths of countless Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza.”
Subianto reiterated Indonesia’s long-standing support for Palestine during his first presidential speech and said that the country was ready “to help our brothers who became victims of an unfair war.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also highlighted on Tuesday Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities and medical workers in northern Gaza, including at the Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahiya, as “clear violations” of international law.
At least two patients have died at the hospital funded by the Indonesian nongovernmental organization Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, as dozens of people remain trapped inside after Israeli strikes that began on Saturday.
The hospital was one of just three partially functional hospitals treating critical patients and sheltering displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza.
“The medics and patients are still holding out inside the hospital. They don’t want to be evacuated because the patients are not in a condition to do so,” Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C’s board of trustees in Jakarta, told Arab News.
Murad said he was last in touch with the hospital staff on Tuesday morning.
“They destroyed solar panels and power generators and are withholding food and medical supplies from the Indonesia Hospital,” he said. “We are very concerned about the people who are trapped inside.”
Over a year since Israel launched its war on Gaza, its military has killed at least 42,700 people and injured more than 100,000. The real death toll is suspected to be much higher, with estimates published by medical journal The Lancet indicating that, as of July, it could be more than 186,000.
Modi arrives for BRICS summit in Kazan, seeks stronger ties with Russia
- Modi expected to meet Xi amid signs of thaw in Indian-Chinese ties
- India ready to support peace efforts amid Russia-Ukraine war, Modi tells Putin
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to reinforce New Delhi’s special partnership with Moscow, his office said on Tuesday, as he is in Russia to participate in the 2024 BRICS summit.
Initially comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the group expanded in January this year, with the accession of Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the UAE.
Morphing into the most powerful geopolitical forum outside of the Western world, it accounts for 45 percent of the world’s population and 35 percent of its economy.
The bloc’s annual meeting is taking place in Kazan on Oct. 22-24.
Ahead of his departure to Russia, Modi’s office quoted him as saying that his participation would “further reinforce the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia.”
He held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately after his arrival.
“The fact that I have come to Russia twice in the last two months demonstrates our deep connection and friendship,” he said, referring to the India-Russia Annual Summit, which he attended in Moscow in July.
The meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit was livestreamed on Modi’s X account.
He offered India’s support to reach peace amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
“We fully support the early restoration of peace and stability. All our efforts give priority to humanity,” Modi said. “India is ready to provide all possible cooperation.”
Modi is attending the BRICS summit accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
“India is a voice of the Global South and Prime Minister Modi will refer to that, and once again bilaterally assess the possibility of further contribution to the efforts for ceasefire and peace in the Eurasian war,” said Anil Trigunayat, a former ambassador who has served in the Indian missions in the Middle East and Europe, including Russia.
“Regional and global challenges will be discussed as well. Prime Minister Modi in his departure statement clearly underscored the importance of BRICS. He will also be meeting several leaders including Iran and China, apart from the host Russia.”
Modi’s expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping would be the “biggest point” of the summit, according to Prof. Amitabh Singh from the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Indian-Chinese ties have been strained since 2020, following deadly clashes on their de facto Himalayan border and military buildup from both sides. Rounds of meetings taking place over the past four years had not yielded any resolution until Monday, when the countries reached a patrolling agreement widely seen as possibly leading to disengagement.
“Modi is going to meet Xi Jinping in all likelihood ... it is also important that India would be starting a new phase of relationship with China after things get worse in 2020,” Singh told Arab News.
“More than economic organization or platform, the BRICS is also becoming a political platform where non-Western countries are coming together.”
