KYIV, Ukraine — The International Monetary Fund has agreed to lend $5.5 billion to Ukraine, a move viewed as a stamp of approval for President Volodymyr Zelensky’s anticorruption and economic policies. An agreement with the fund, in Ukraine and elsewhere, is seen as important to wooing foreign investment. But for the Kyiv government, the deal brings another benefit in that it could help dispel talk of widespread Ukrainian corruption, which is an underlying issue in the impeachment proceedings in the United States Congress. “I commended the president for the impressive progress that he and his government have made in the past few months,” Kristalina Georgieva, the fund’s managing director, said in a statement announcing the agreement late Saturday. The agreement also comes at a critical time for the Kyiv government, two days before Mr. Zelensky is to meet President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for peace talks in Paris.

Source: International New York Times December 08, 2019 12:56 UTC