After the July scandal with anti-corruption bodies, the Ukrainian authorities abruptly shifted their stance and resumed fulfilling their commitments. President Zelensky stressed that fighting corruption and moving towards the EU must remain priorities. The government also finally appointed the head of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES). All this became an important signal to European partners and a way to preserve Ukraine’s joint path to the EU together with Moldova.

Talks about a new cooperation programme with the IMF are ongoing, though there are no official details yet. The main problem is that the current agreement assumed a quick end to the war and the start of reconstruction, but those forecasts did not come true. It is expected that Ukraine’s unfulfilled obligations will be carried over into the new programme, while the IMF itself may be more demanding of the Ukrainian authorities.

The government updated Ukraine’s Plan for the UKRAINE PLAN and agreed on changes with the European Commission. Some reforms were decided to be accelerated, in particular the sale of state-owned banks and changes in the energy sector. The EU Council is expected to approve the updated Plan by the end of September, and in that case, starting from Q3 2025 Ukraine will report according to the new schedule. In this presentation we use the version of the Ukraine Plan valid as of August, which does not yet reflect these changes.