Ukraine has met all prior actions required for approval of a new IMF program, the $8.1bn four-year EFF, IMF Director of Communications Julie Kozack said yesterday. The measures included submitting a new Labor Code to parliament and adopting the 2026 state budget law consistent with program objectives. Kozack added that the IMF Board will consider the new program in the coming days.

Hungary’s government considers halting gas and electricity exports to Ukraine if shipments of Russian crude oil via Ukraine do not resume, Minister of Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás said yesterday. Hungary is reportedly coordinating its steps with Slovakia. Both Hungary and Slovakia earlier halted diesel exports to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government has approved a mechanism to compensate state rail monopoly Ukrainian Railways (RAILUA) for losses generated by its long-distance passenger transportation, with budgetary compensation set at UAH 16bn ($370m) in 2026.

US, Ukrainian and Russian delegations held a third round of trilateral peace talks in Geneva on Feb. 17-18, again achieving no visible progress on the main contentious issues but reportedly agreeing to schedule another meeting soon. President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian and Russian military representatives “discussed certain issues seriously and substantively” and “agreed on almost everything” concerning the monitoring of a potential ceasefire, including with US involvement. CNN, citing a source close to the talks, said military officials made “incremental but significant progress” in agreeing the practical terms of a ceasefire, which should help lay the foundation for a potential broader agreement, with the next round of talks possible in the next few weeks. However, there was still no headway on “sensitive political matters,” Zelensky said, adding that he counted on the next meeting, also to be held in Switzerland, being scheduled by the end of February. In earlier comments about the first day of talks, Zelensky described it as difficult and said negotiations could already have been in the final stage if not delayed by the Russian side. In addition to the formal trilateral negotiations, Ukrainian representatives also held yesterday a 1.5-hour “closed” meeting with the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, on which no details were disclosed.

DTEK Energy estimates the cost of repairing 4 GW of damaged power generation capacity at EUR 300m, DTEK B.V. CEO Maksym Timchenko said. DTEK has already set aside EUR 150m and is seeking an additional EUR 150m to procure necessary equipment to restore all capacities ahead of the next heating season. According to the company, repairs represent the quickest and most cost-effective way to quickly add such a capacity volume to the grid.

Ukraine’s provisional merchandise trade deficit stood at $3.4bn in January, narrowing from an all-time high of $5.8bn in December but widening from $2.4bn in January 2025. Monthly imports totaled $6.7bn, down 29% m-o-m but up 20% y-o-y, while exports reached $3.2bn, down 9.1% m-o-m but up 1.9% y-o-y.

Ukraine’s iron ore exports stood at 2.1 Mt in January, down 7.5% m-o-m and 34% y-o-y. In value terms, iron ore exports dropped by only 0.7% m-o-m to $160m (yet -35% y-o-y) as  realized export prices rose 7.4% m-o-m to $78/t, virtually flat y-o-y.

Ukraine has received another $0.7bn under the G7’s $50bn Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) mechanism backed by proceeds from immobilized Russian central bank assets, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The tranche was disbursed via the World Bank’s PEACE program and included a first $544m contribution from Japan, out of its total commitment of $3.1bn (JPY 472bn), and Canada’s final disbursement of $146m, out of $3.6bn (CAD 5.0bn). The funds will finance the state budget’s social outlays, including pensions and utility subsidies.

Naftogaz signed a EUR 85m grant agreement with the EBRD to finance gas imports. The financing was provided by Norway and channeled via the EBRD.

Crude steel production in Ukraine fell by 14% m-o-m and 16% y-o-y in January, to 511 kt. Finished and semi-finished steel production totaled 406 kt (-27% m-o-m, -16% y-o-y), while hot metal output stood at 550 kt (-21% m-o-m, -7.5% y-o-y).

Key highlights: • Ukrainian forces conducted a series of localized counterattacks in Zaporizhya region, stopping the Russian offensive in the second most important sector after Donetsk. • Russia’s weekly territorial gains on the entire front dropped to 30-35 km2 as a result, or around half of the YTD weekly average. • Ukraine stepped up attacks against military and energy infrastructure targets in Russia after a prolonged pause. • President Zelensky confirmed near-term plans to boost defense exports.

Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said on Friday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had agreed to transform previously agreed prior actions for the approval of its new program for Ukraine, the $8.1bn four-year EFF, into structural benchmarks to be assessed during the program’s first review. This would allow the IMF Board to approve the program in late February together with the disbursement of a first $1.5bn tranche, which would also unlock funding under the EU’s recently approved EUR 90bn Ukraine Support Loan (USL). The IMF’s more flexible approach reflects the deterioration in Ukraine’s economic situation due to damage to energy infrastructure from Russian attacks.

Ukraine’s foreign partners have pledged $38bn in bilateral military assistance this year, Ukraine’s Defense Secretary Mykhailo Fedorov said following a meeting yesterday of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of around 50 countries supporting Ukraine militarily. The largest contributors are Germany with EUR 11.5bn ($13.6bn), Norway ($7bn), Sweden and the UK with around $4bn each, the Netherlands ($3bn), and Denmark ($2bn). In terms of immediate assistance, the UK announced a GBP 540m ($735m) package including GBP 390m ($287m) worth of air defense missiles and systems and GBP 150m ($204m) for the NATO Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative, which finances purchases of US weapons for Ukraine, mostly air defense. The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden announced an additional $300m in PURL contributions.

Ukrainian banks increased the stock of net UAH loans (excluding NPLs) by 35% y-o-y (UAH 211bn) in 2025, to UAH 818bn, accelerating from +20% in 2024 and zero growth in 2023. Net FX loans rose by 20% y-o-y ($1.0bn) to $6.2bn, following a 5.6% decline in 2024. The stock of gross UAH loans rose by 6.8% y-o-y to UAH 886bn, slowing from 14% in 2024, while FX-denominated loans expanded by 15% y-o-y to $7.1bn, up from 4.4% in 2024. The gross loan-to-GDP ratio stood at 13.3% in 2025, flat y-o-y, while net loans reached 12.1% of GDP, up 1.8pp y-o-y.

Naftogaz has sent out a request for proposals to advisers to help address its EUR 695m Eurobond maturing on Jul. 19, 2026, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

The volume of natural gas in Ukraine’s underground storage reservoirs (UGS) stood at 10.6 bcm as of end-January, down 13% m-o-m (from 12.2 bcm at end-2025) but up 32% y-o-y (from 8.1 bcm in January 2025).