MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. In 2025 Ukraine lost 3.6 bln euros of the Western funding because the country’s government failed to meet several so-called structural benchmarks—EU conditions for receiving financial assistance, Verkhovna Rada Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak stated.

"Ukraine lost 174 billion hryvnias (or $4.24 billion, or €3.6 billion) in funding under the Ukraine Facility program in 2025 <...>, which is more than half of the entire IMF program for four years," Zheleznyak wrote on his Telegram channel.

He explained that due to the failure to meet one structural benchmark in the first quarter of the year, Ukraine lost 0.3 billion euros in revenue. In the second quarter, Kiev failed to meet two more conditions, losing 0.7 billion euros. Another structural benchmark was not met in the third quarter, depriving the country of 0.3 billion euros. The MP described the last quarter of the year as a "total failure," resulting in a loss of 2.3 billion euros.

Western allies, on whose assistance Ukraine depends, are increasingly tying the continuation of this support and the country's European integration process to the fulfillment of a number of conditions, the so-called structural benchmarks, which include legislative amendments.

The Ukraine Facility, a support fund for Ukraine, has been in effect since March 1, 2024. It is formally aimed at supporting reforms Brussels demanded from Kiev as part of its EU accession process. Its volume is set at 50 billion euros for the period until 2027. The allocation of funds is conditioned on Kiev's compliance with a number of requirements, including the adoption of laws. Ukraine's budget has been running a record deficit for several years. Its own revenues were only able to cover military expenditures, with the rest financed by Western aid. However, Kiev has recently been negotiating with its partners to obtain permission to use the funds they provide for military purposes, among other things. Moreover, the majority of these funds are allocated to Kyiv in the form of loans, not grants. As former Ukrainian Prime Minister (2010-2014) Nikolay Azarov noted, without Western lending, Ukraine would cease to exist as a state.