IMF agrees 17.5 bln in extended fund facility with Ukraine

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaks about the situation in Ukraine at a news conference in Brussels February 12, 2015.[Photo/Agencies]

BRUSSELS - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed an extended fund facility of 17.5 billion US dollars, as part of an funding package worth 40 billion dollars in total for conflict-torn Ukraine, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said here on Thursday.

Lagarde told a news conference in Brussels that the IMF team working in Kiev has concluded a staff-level agreement with the Ukrainian government on a new economic reform program that would be supported by an extended fund facility of about 17.5 billion dollars from the IMF.

Lagarde said Ukraine would receive around 40 billion dollars over the next four years, nearly half of which will come from the IMF.

The announcement came as Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko was holding marathon talks in Minsk with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande over the Ukraine crisis.