IMF loves Ukraine

This isn't new but it IS disgusting and corrupt.

Sovereign junk

In June 2024, Ukraine's sovereign debt was downgraded by international rating agencies to a CCC rating. In other words, below junk grade. Even African countries who have been exploited by treasury-pillaging perma-crats (), or recently transitioned to governance by military junta (Burkina Faso), or endured decades of abject poverty (Democratic Republic of Congo) have better government bond ratings!

The Ukraine was well on the way to an SD or D (for DEFAULT) from Standard and Poor's due to its apparent inability to make a loan payment due on 1 August 2024.

Saving Project Ukraine

Probably after pleas from western liberal progressive war hawks, (e.g. then-Finance Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland, dim bulb U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Ogre Nuland and her extended family at the Institute for War), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) intervened and a temporary payment waiver was granted. The due date was postponed a few weeks.

At that point, I lost interest and stopped following the story. After nearly three years, I have Ukraine exhaustion. This is especially true after being exposed to the hordes of NAFO dog people on Twitter. I refuse to re-litigate the Budapest Memorandum with devotees of Saint Javelin, while NAFOs, Azov fanboys, and coastal elite U.S. Democrats ignore Minsk 2. The Kiev Independent published yet another article about how many consecutive Rada and presidential elections have been cancelled. Even U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham is getting testy about Zelensky's repeated failures to hold elections in a putative democracy.

Another source of strife is grousing that Ukraine should have "never given up their nukes". Cold War era nuclear missile-tipped ICBMs were positioned in Soviet Socialist Republic #1 (Ukraine). They had always belonged to Russia though, and were rightfully returned in 1994. Other former republics were also left with nuclear missiles upon dissolution of the USSR. They wanted to keep theirs, but were persuaded not to. Regardless, there were plenty of dangerous illegal arms sales from Ukraine and Kazakhstan to assorted terrorists and international criminal organizations during the late 1990s through 2010.

The Biden administration was providing multi-billion dollar cash infusions to Zelensky on the regular, so it seemed likely that a few million dollars could be diverted to the country's creditors in the autumn of 2024. Maybe?

IMF easy money policy

Maybe not. While browsing archival IMF content today, I was surprised AND appalled to read the following document dated 18 October 2024 and titled "Ukraine: Fifth Review Under the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility, Requests for Waivers of Applicability of Performance Criteria, Modification of Performance Criterion, Rephasing of Access, and Financing Assurances Review-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Ukraine, IMF Staff Country Reports 2024, 314 (2024). International Monetary Fund. European Dept".

So, it would appear that the extended funding facility for Ukraine has been further extended. Furthermore, Ukraine is off the hook for complying with various performance requirements as part of the lending agreement AND has received intimations of future IMF largesse.

All of this is especially ironic in light of Zelensky's most recent complaint that he never received $100 billion of humanitarian aid and military assistance money from the United States. Apparently, he didn't realize this until just a few days ago.