The International Monetary Fund Resident Representative Office in Ukraine has reserved their position in comments over the possible introduction of martial law in the country until the relevant decree appeared. However, the office reminded the position about the absence of formal legal bans for continuation of cooperation announced by the resident representative of the IMF. This is reported by Interfax-Ukraine.
"As for the possible introduction of martial law, the IMF does not have formal legal bans hindering the continuation of cooperation in these conditions", – Jerome Vacher, who was Resident Representative of the IMF in Ukraine, answered at the end of October 2014 the question of Yevropeyska Pravda about the possibility of maintaining cooperation with the fund in case of declaration of martial law.
"We have already cooperated with a number of countries, on the territory of which military conflicts of different activity were seen", – the representative of the IMF said at that time.
As previously reported, Ukraine is counting on the decision by the Board of Directors of the Fund in December to open a new 14-month stand-by (SBA) economic policy support program which will replace the expanded financing program (EFF), approved in March 2015 and ending in March 2019. It is assumed that the stand-by program with about $3.9 billion will help Ukraine to maintain macro-stability during the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019, when the country will also face peak payments on foreign debt. Last week, the Verkhovna Rada passed the 2019 state budget with a deficit of up to 2.3% of GDP, what was one of the conditions for the approval of the program. However, an analysis of the adopted document is also required for compliance with the agreements reached.
As previously reported, on November 25, Russian ships opened fire on Ukrainian ships while leaving the Kerch Strait. Two armored boats Berdiansk and Nikopol and the Yany Kapu sea mule tugboat were captured by the aggressors. The Russians moored them in the port of occupied Kerch.
The Prosecutor General's Office, jointly with the SBU, has registered and is carrying out urgent investigative actions on the act of waging a war of aggression by the Russian Federation (under Art. 437 of the Criminal Code).
The Russian Federation, in turn, stated that the Ukrainian warships had illegally penetrated the territorial waters of their state and headed for the Kerch Strait, had not warned about the transfer and carried out dangerous maneuvers.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko convened a war cabinet because of the escalation of situation in the Sea of Azov. At midnight, a meeting of the NSDC was held, during which the President of Ukraine supported position of the military committee on the imposition of martial law. Following the meeting, the NSDC sent a proposal to the Parliament to impose martial law for 60 days. The Rada will hold an emergency meeting on November 26 at 4 p.m.