In his new video, Yaroslav Zhelezniak explains that Ukraine isn’t losing IMF funds; the real problem is government inaction on Ukraine Facility and World Bank benchmarks.
Yaroslav Zhelezniak: So, an important clarification.
Right now, many government representatives and, most importantly, reasonable media outlets have started saying that without the tax law our funding will stop here and now. This is absolutely untrue and a manipulation.
It is clear why government representatives are spreading this. Why the media and some experts do not check such basic facts — I don’t know.
In fact, regarding the IMF, our situation is the best of all. The program has been approved, $1.5 billion has already been allocated, and only at the end of June will the question of allocating the next tranche of $685 million arise. And, this is my subjective opinion, the tranche may even be approved without this benchmark.
Where there really is a problem — and it is growing every day — is the Ukraine Facility. And the problem there concerns the first, second, and third quarters of last year… Back when there was no political crisis))) And Svyrydenko was responsible for the UFP.
There is also a problem with the World Bank. They have not managed to meet the benchmarks there for a year now. They simply ignored them.
And when the EU loan arrives (30 out of the 90 billion will go to the budget), more problems will appear there as well, because most of the benchmarks will concern anti-corruption measures.
Why am I describing all this: the next time you hear “Parliament did not vote to increase taxes, so there will be no money,” know that this is purely a manipulation. There really is a problem with international financing, but it has been developing for much longer and in other areas. For some reason, the tax law was simply chosen to distract attention — and it worked.
Friends, hello. You know, during this parliamentary or state crisis I often appear on broadcasts, and there are representatives of the Servant of the People party there who keep repeating one myth. By the way, journalists, if you are watching us, you are making the same mistake — saying that our problem is the IMF law. And that if we do not adopt it now, there will be a catastrophe already in April, practically an armageddon.
Here my role is to explain this both to colleagues and to others, because very often it is not even manipulation — they simply did not understand, and the government, accordingly, misled them about it, because that is absolutely not the case.
Indeed, the situation with parliament does involve problems. I recorded about ten videos about this. And there really is a serious problem with laws not being voted on, especially those linked to international requirements. That is an obvious fact.
However, the list of these problems does not include the IMF bill. I had wanted for a long time to prepare this analysis for you and show it with proper arguments. But thanks to Forbes — they published an excellent article. So, referring to their data, which fully corresponds to reality, we will now look into who is actually responsible for the fact that Ukraine may not receive 7 billion euros. What exactly the problem is, what the IMF has to do with it, and where our government is misleading not only Ukrainians but also members of parliament themselves, especially those from the Servant of the People party.
So, this is Yaroslav Zhelezniak, and this is the Zaliznyy Nardep channel. Now we will look into where and how we, as a state, are losing money and who is responsible for it. Let’s begin.
Alright, friends, briefly. I have repeated this about twenty times on our channel, but okay, here it is once again. We have requirements that are tied to funding. Let’s list them, because this will be important later.
The IMF. Then, accordingly, the Ukraine Facility — these are European funds. In the future there will also be the €90 billion from the European Union. We have not received that yet, so there is no point now in claiming that we are losing it.
Next is the World Bank. And there are probably some smaller programs that could also be mentioned, but they are not really significant.
In short: the IMF, the Ukraine Facility, and the World Bank. Each of them has certain benchmarks. If we pass the votes, we receive the money. If we do not pass them, we do not receive the money.
As for the IMF, let me explain right away — their model is slightly different. There is a list of so-called benchmarks. Every quarter there is a review of the program, after which funds are allocated to us. If the IMF approves that we are moving forward, the money is allocated. If it does not approve, then the money is not allocated.
This is not the situation that will be described later, where specific benchmarks are tied to specific amounts of money. It is not like: you did not raise taxes, so minus €300 million in funding. No.
In our case it works differently: either you implement the whole program, or the IMF agrees that you are implementing the whole program, or it does not. And we have quite a few examples of this — including the appointment of the head of the Bureau of Economic Security, the appointment of the head of customs, or the so-called Lozovyi amendments. I could go on with many more examples where the program goes for review, a certain benchmark has not been fulfilled, and it is simply postponed. This actually makes the situation with this particular tax bill much easier for us.
The second important point: we have already had the first review. That means the program was approved and we have already received $1.5 billion from the IMF. The next roughly $500 million will come in June. So this is not critical right now.
And when the government claims that if the tax increases are not voted through everything will collapse — that is not true. It is manipulation. There are no immediate consequences from this now. Moreover, I am convinced that the IMF clearly understands the situation with taxes and could simply postpone this benchmark.
Now we return to the question: what is the problem then? Why do MP Zhelezniak and others say that if we fail to pass certain votes in the Verkhovna Rada we will lose money?
Again, thanks to colleagues from Forbes, who described this situation quite well. We now return to other areas — namely the Ukraine Facility and the story that can be called the World Bank track.
So what is the situation there? I don’t know how clearly you can see it on the screen right now, but I will try to explain it verbally. At least regarding the problems specifically in this direction.
This is because the Ukraine Facility works in a completely different way. There, each benchmark — each specific point — has a certain amount of money attached to it. If you do not fulfill it, that amount of funding is lost. If you miss the deadline by a year, the funds are lost entirely.
So let’s look into it, because this is exactly where our main financing problems lie.
For example, the selection of judges for the High Anti-Corruption Court was supposed to be completed in the first quarter of 2025 — that is, a year ago. We could lose €280 million because nothing was done.
Or the bill on reviewing judges’ integrity declarations. That was scheduled for the second quarter, and nothing has been done there for a year either. That is where the real problem is.
And further, as you can see, there is a huge number of laws that still have not been adopted — and in many cases for rather strange reasons.
Alright, there is also the SEPA law — we will talk about it later. We already had a video about it. It concerns financial monitoring. There really is a political aspect there, although it can still be resolved.
But there are also many other bills that are completely straightforward: things like the digitalization of enforcement proceedings, integration of energy markets, railway traffic safety, and support for centralized supply.
In short, we could go on and on: for example, restoring competitive selection for the civil service, which was suspended during the full-scale invasion. And obviously, that is a problem.
Throughout this whole process there are many such bills — ranging from state monitoring of government aid to the designation of the electricity market operator. And as you can see, this list goes on.
I do not want to repeat all those bills now — there are simply too many of them. My task is just to show you that everything you see on the screen is the list of bills that we have missed.
Now let’s speak frankly: within this whole list there are also World Bank bills. And there the rule is the same again — if everything is done, the money is received; if even one point is not completed, you receive nothing. There is the Ukraine Facility, and there is the IMF.
So the problems we have with the World Bank and the Ukraine Facility started a long time ago. I would say about a year ago.
With the World Bank, we started missing benchmarks back in the fall — specifically in September–October of last year. I also recorded a video about this.
As for the Ukraine Facility — yes, since the beginning of 2025, when our authorities essentially stopped fulfilling these commitments, the problems began and have simply been piling up. And now, honestly, it looks quite alarming.
Just look at the list of what we need to complete. And I remind you: during the last plenary week of March, the parliament is proposing to do exactly nothing. That is, zero bills from this list are scheduled to be considered.
And accordingly, when I — or respected journalists, or members of the public, or international partners — say that due to the parliament’s blockage or the government’s ignoring of votes we could lose funding, they are correct.
The only thing is, there’s no need to manipulate the narrative by claiming that we will lose money specifically because the tax bill was not passed. That is an absolute manipulation; it does not reflect reality.
Moreover, my current favorite argument: where is that tax bill? I mean, did the government or the president even submit it? We haven’t seen it. There is nothing to vote on, not even anything to discuss in committee.
Once it is submitted, we will definitely talk about it. For now, there’s nothing to discuss. But again: this is not the real problem.
The real issue is the whole long list of items that has been accumulating since the beginning of 2025, deliberately ignored, primarily by the government and the president.
And now, it’s like a student who skipped classes for five months and only in the sixth month before exams remembers that they have a gradebook to fill out — and there are, well, quite a lot of problems there.
The only thing is, next year no one will wait for us — the money will simply be lost.
And this is the truth regarding the financing situation.
I hope I’ve explained the concept clearly. Next time, people won’t be fooled by the manipulations coming from the Servant of the People party.
This was Yaroslav Zhelezniak. This is the Zaliznyy Nardep channel. Goodbye, and see you next time.
