Ukraine will fail to meet 25 partner program requirements worth EUR 7 bln by end of Q1 2026 – MP
The Verkhovna Rada will not have time to fulfill 25 structural measures by the end of the first quarter of 2026 as provided for by financial support programs from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (DPO), and the Ukraine Facility, reported People’s Deputy Yaroslav Zhelezniak (Holos faction) on his Telegram channel on Monday.
According to the deputy, the attraction of financing totaling about EUR7 billion is at risk due to the failure to fulfill these points. Zhelezniak noted that the current plenary week, the last in March, has effectively failed: Tuesday’s session was canceled due to a lack of votes, and there is no potential for decision-making on Wednesday and Thursday.
"During all this time, no one has even tried to solve the problem. There was no communication from the government or attempts by the president to gather the faction to coordinate actions. Currently, there is no plan or strategy on how to get out of this situation," the parliamentarian emphasized.
Zhelezniak also added that he sees no prospects for a quick change in the situation as the political crisis within the mono-majority deepens. In his opinion, deputies of the Servant of the People faction no longer feel obligations to the president, do not see their own political future in new government projects, and critically assess the incapacity of the current government.
The head of the committee on finance, tax, and customs policy, Danylo Hetmantsev, reported that on Monday, March 23, he held a meeting with representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), during which the failure of structural benchmarks of the new financing program that Ukraine was supposed to fulfill in March was discussed.
"We talked for a long time, the conversation was not easy, as the situation is extremely complicated. Indeed, the disruption of the program with the IMF (and we are closer to it than ever) will mean a financial catastrophe. We finally came to a predictable conclusion: it is impossible to discuss, collect votes, and vote in the Rada for any initiative while it is absent from the Rada. Even if the initiative is for the implementation of the IMF program. We are waiting for the relevant bill from the government," he wrote on Telegram.
As reported, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine on March 20 published the so-called "large tax bill" on its website. It contains norms on mandatory VAT registration for single-tax payers with incomes from UAH 4 million per year, taxation of imported parcels worth up to EUR 150, the extension of the 5% military tax even after the war, as well as the introduction of international automatic exchange of information on income received through digital platforms and taxation on digital platforms (Uklon, OLX, etc.).
According to the terms of the new $8.1 billion EFF program approved in late February, Ukraine must adopt the tax package described above by the end of March 2026.
Earlier, on March 10, the Rada rejected the bill on taxing income through digital platforms (No. 14025), which received only 168 votes out of the 226 required.
