Ukraine hopes international financial aid will help it avoid default and develop the national economy, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Sunday.
"We need financial aid to survive, to stabilize the situation and develop," he told the One Plus One television channel.
He accused Ukraine's former government of incrementing foreign debts. Now, in his words, the country needed more borrowing to repay its debts. "A total of 40 billion U.S. dollars were borrowed abroad under President Viktor Yanukovich. We must pay this money back. It will be very difficult to do it without international assistance. This is what is called default," he said.
He noted that under current agreements, Kiev hoped to receive a financial aid worth 25 billion U.S. dollars in the next four years, of which 17.5 billion U.S. dollars were to come from the International Monetary Fund /IMF/.
"A part of this sum will go to replenish the currency and gold reserves, to stabilize the hryvnia exchange rate," he said, adding that these measures would help the national economy to begin growth in 2016.
He said that Ukraine had already fulfilled IMF's conditions to continue the crediting programme. "We have fulfilled reforms, all of our promises," Yatsenyuk said.