(Reuters) -Ukraine has received a $1.5 billion tranche of funding under a World Bank programme, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday, helping it pay for its budget and social spending as it defends itself against the Russian invasion.
Ukraine is reliant on financial aid from its Western partners but foreign financing dwindled in the first two months of this year, and a U.S. aid package has been blocked by Republicans in Congress for months.
The new block of World Bank aid was funded by Britain and Japan, Shmyhal said.
“984 million dollars come from Japan and 516 million dollars from the UK. The funds will cover budget spending for social and humanitarian needs and reconstruction,” he wrote on X.
Earlier in March, Ukraine received a 4.5 billion euro ($4.9 billion) first tranche of aid under a European Union bridging finance programme.
Kyiv spends most of its own revenues to finance its defence efforts since Russia invaded in February 2022, leaving Kyiv heavily reliant on funding from Western partners to cover its social spending.
“The effective work of the government, together with timely support from partners, allows us to maintain stability of the financial system even in times of the full-scale aggression and daily terror of the Russian Federation,” Serhiy Marchenko, the finance minister, said in a statement.
($1 = 0.9275 euros)
