In 2024, Ukraine will need from 12 to 14 billion dollars in financial aid from the United States, given that budget expenditures remain at a high level, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said on Monday, Bloomberg and Agerpres reported.

Martsenko also noted that he hopes that the US interim budget will be adopted in the near future and that by the end of the year, Ukraine will be able to receive another $3.3 billion to cover the budget deficit.

“While there are no discussions, there are many uncertainties, and we do not believe that this is guaranteed,” Serhiy Marchenko said at a business forum organized in Kyiv.

Martsenko added that in 2024, the ministry headed by him would like to receive state budget financing from the United States at the level of this year.

“Not lower than this year: around 12-14 billion dollars. This is what we are waiting for,” Serhiy Martsenko said.

Ukraine received nearly $10 billion in U.S. aid this year to cover its budget deficit, and authorities in Kyiv expect their needs to continue to grow next year as the Ukrainian army slowly advances its counteroffensive.

Ukraine is preparing to continue the war against Russia

Despite US President Joe Biden’s request for $24 billion in emergency funds to respond to the war in Ukraine, the next tranche of US aid to Ukraine has faced political obstacles as the US enters the presidential election cycle.

Ukraine’s new defense minister, Rustem Umerov, said last week that he would ask the Cabinet to increase the defense budget by 251 billion hryvnias ($6.8 billion) this year, as military spending rises by the day.

On Monday, Minister of Finance Serhii Martsenko said that the government in Kyiv will discuss the defense minister’s request at the next meeting, but he estimated that “I am not sure that we will be able to cover all the needs” mentioned by Rustem Umerov.

Oleksiy Reznikov, who headed Ukraine’s defense ministry from the start of the war until earlier this month, recently said that one day of conflict against Russia costs Ukraine $100 million.

“That’s why we have to work and pay taxes. Business must be active, and we must support entrepreneurs,” he stressed, as Ukraine returned to pre-war tax rates last month.

The cancellation of tax benefits and an increase in revenues to the budget were the key conditions of the IMF in the framework of the agreement to provide Kyiv with a loan of 15.6 billion dollars.

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