REUTERS
Honcharuk says talks with the IMF are under way.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has denied foreign media reports about the failure of talks between Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a new cooperation program.
"That doesn't correspond to reality. We have an absolutely normal working process with colleagues from the International Monetary Fund," he told reporters when asked to comment on the respective reports.
Read alsoIMF mission to arrive in Kyiv in Nov to continue talks on new cooperation program: Ukrainian PM
According to him, the lender wants to be sure that Ukraine as a state will do everything in its power to recover funds siphoned from bankrupt banks.
"The rumors that the program has been put on hold and the IMF has given up [cooperation with Ukraine] are just manipulations one should not believe in. Negotiations [are under way], work continues, we keep in touch with our colleagues over the phone on a daily basis," he added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, a recent IMF assessment mission worked in Kyiv on September 12-26. Following the mission's work, the IMF said that they would continue work on a new three-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program for Ukraine in the coming weeks.
Following talks with a Ukrainian delegation to the United States, Director of the European Department at the International Monetary Fund Poul M. Thomsen said the Fund's mission would visit Kyiv again in the following weeks to discuss a new EFF program for Ukraine.
This week, The Wall Street Journal, citing its sources, said that the IMF had postponed financial assistance to Ukraine, as the Fund is concerned about the possibility of President Volodymyr Zelensky to return billions of dollars siphoned from banks.