Ukraine has received more than 2 billion euros (2.2 billion dollars) in funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal said on Wednesday on the messaging platform Telegram.

The tranche is part of an ongoing loan programme amounting to some 15 billion euros, Shmyhal said.

It would be used to fund vital government expenditure such as welfare spending and salaries for state employees, including doctors and teachers, he said.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kiev has received more than 80 billion euros in aid from foreign partners for its government expenditure, Ukrainian figures show.

British magazine ‘The Economist’ on Sunday reported that the country has in August faced a possible default.

It said that a number of private lenders were expected to demand a resumption of debt repayments that were suspended at the beginning of the conflict.

The Ukrainian government said it was in no position to begin repaying loans and that it’s aiming to freeze future payments or restructure its debt.

Kiev’s international allies have already frozen repayments of government loans until at least 2027.

According to The Economist’s calculations, Ukraine’s debt burden is expected to rise to an estimated 94 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of the year.

In the euro-zone, any figure beyond 60 per cent is considered unstable.