MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. Ukraine has received $16 billion from Western countries to help cover its budget deficit since the beginning of this year, and Kiev expects to receive another $22 billion by the end of the year, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry said.

"This year the state budget has already received $16 billion in external financing, another $22 billion is expected by the end of the year," the ministry said in a statement on its website. The Finance Ministry also claims that the Ukrainian government reports to the West on a regular basis about how this money is spent.

For the second year in a row, Ukraine has drawn up a budget with a record deficit, expecting to cover the bulk of this shortage with the help of Western partners. This year, it will amount to $43.9 billion. The country's Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko said that the budget needed $3 billion in revenues from its partners every month. However, he admitted that only a quarter of the Western financial aid received in 2023 was provided through grants, i.e. free of charge. Meanwhile, the head of the IMF mission in Ukraine, Gavin Gray, noted that international support for Kiev would decrease over time and that the country's authorities needed to "develop domestic resources for self-financing." According to the Ukrainian Finance Ministry, the government debt reached 80% of GDP by the end of last year.