Ukraine is in desperate need of fiscal room. At the end of the year, its debt-to-gdp ratio will approach 94%—high for an economy with its rocky financial history and of its size. The sums that allies provide are impressive, but come in the form of artillery, tanks and earmarked funds, rather than cash. Only $8bn of America's recent package will go directly to Ukraine's government, an amount equivalent to just over a quarter of Ukraine's annual spending on social benefits, and even this is in the form of a loan. The eu is planning to offer a little more, but still only $38bn over three years.
[...]

strana | By the end of the year, Ukraine will return to the IMF almost the entire last tranche in the form of repayment of old loans
SDR bankruptcy

The reticence of private-sector investors does not just reflect Ukraine's financial outlook. In a normal restructuring, creditors gamble on a country's economic prospects. Lending to a borrower at war also entails a second gamble: that it will win. "There has to be a country in existence to repay at the end of this," as a bondholder notes. A lot depends on the extent of Western support.

interfax | IMF expects Ukraine's GDP to grow 2.5-3.5% in 2024, inflation [rate] to slow to 8%, from 8.5% following the fourth review of the Extended Fund Facility

Taxpayers may tire of handing over billions. Donald Trump, who has been sceptical of the amounts disbursed, looks increasingly likely to return to the White House in November. The imf's usual models struggle to take such factors into account.

archive Ukraine's Marchenko says, Waivers of Non-Observance

reference
IMF, Fourth Review of the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility, Request for modification of a performance criterion..and statement of the Executive Director for Ukraine, June 2024 154 pp pdf

The frontline of the Russo-Ukrainian war now extends into Africa and the Middle East, where Ukrainian special forces have been hunting Russian forces to erode Moscow's economic resources and influence.
[...]
According to a leaked top-secret U.S. intelligence document, Ukraine's military intelligence agency previously devised plans to attack Russian forces in Syria with clandestine Kurdish assistance in early 2023. The objective behind targeting Russian units in Syria was to potentially compel Russia to redirect its military assets from Ukraine to strengthen its defenses in Syria. Ukrainian officers considered training Syrian Democratic Forces operatives to strike Russian targets with unmanned aerial vehicle attacks.
[...]
Ukrainian Defense Intelligence has close ties to the CIA, which helped develop the top-secret Ukrainian intelligence organization after Russia's first invasion in 2014. Since its inception, it has had authority to collect intelligence outside Ukraine. According to the New York Times, Budanov's initial unit was known for its daring missions behind enemy lines, and he himself was trained by the CIA.
[...]
Ukraine has the capability to engage militarily in regions where Western powers might be hesitant to intervene, such as Sudan and southern Syria. The return on investment for a small amount of Ukrainian input from Western powers could be quite substantial. The West would be wise to provide Ukraine with more resources, including intelligence, to support its efforts to strike Russia wherever necessary.

After NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg initially proposed a multi-annual €100 billion proposal, the plan was debated, revised, and changed due to reluctance to give multi-year pledges and questions around burden-sharing among NATO allies.

On Wednesday, NATO countries reached an agreement to share the sum of €40 billion per year, based on the gross national income (GNI) of each country, a person familiar with the discussions told Euractiv. Contrary to the original Stoltenberg proposal, the money will not be pledged across several years, but for only one. After that, NATO will annually review this on the basis that this is a non-binding commitment. The pledge will most likely not contain new cash, three NATO diplomats told Euractiv.

19.04.23. US Navy Will Spend $200 Billion—Equal to Ukraine's GDP—on Subs It Barely Uses
08.02.24 Kyiv will have to get creative. It can't waste time and money trying to replicate the multibillion-dollar systems of sophisticated surface vessels, submarines, and aircraft that Western navies use to hunt enemy submarines.

indiatimes | Russian Blitz Makes Ukraine 'Beg' For Western Submarines After Warplanes

Ukraine Navy Chief Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa has urged the West to provide submarines to bolster Kyiv's capabilities in the Black Sea. Neizhpapa argued that submarines could strategically improve Ukraine's positions in the ongoing war against Russia. The Navy Chief Admiral emphasized that with a strong fleet, Ukraine would turn from a coastal state into a maritime power.

He announced this on his Facebook page.

mail | Rishi Sunak calls general election for JULY 4: Drenched (and drowned out) PM announces snap summer contest - but podium moment is sabotaged by rain, protesters playing Labour's 1997 landslide election anthem and Tories warning he has 'death wish' (22.05.24)

[...]
After his dismissal from the post of commander-in-chief, Zaluzhny was declared unfit for service. The media wrote that he himself wrote a report on his dismissal from the army, which had been lying on the desk of Defense Minister Rustem Umerov for several weeks. Strana analyzed in detail [8 Mar 2024]

archive February 2024 NATO enlargement, March 2024 Slava Big Israel!, May 2024 Fraught Mobilization, Tory collapse

MP Mariana Bezuglaya, who has recently criticized Syrsky and the Ukrainian generals, claims that "a number of sources" informed her about this position of Syrsky.
[...]
In her opinion, Syrsky plans to "go down in history and save a whole layer of the general's mafia, which is closer to demolition than ever,"by stopping the fire. Bezuglaya claims that this position is also beneficial for ex-commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny, whose influence on the Armed Forces of Ukraine remains.

Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Maryana Bezuglaya was added to the database of the Mirotvorets website.

Ukrainian bloggers who called for stopping the war were listed on Mirotvorets (16.07.24)
after the Russian missile strike on the Okhmatdet children's hospital in Kiev
[...]
All of them are credited with "participating in acts of humanitarian aggression against Ukraine, "spreading Russian propaganda," and "participating in Russia's information and psychological operation against Ukraine."

[...]
On the eve of the Defense Committee of the Rada voted to remove Bezugla from the post of head of the subcommittee.

According to her, the priorities of colleagues in the committee are not clear to her, representatives of the faction in the committee "unite with the opposition in sabotage, rather than fulfilling their mission of legislation and control over the national security and defense sector," as a result of which the committee does not promote critical reforms of state secrets, the SBU, and the military police.

At the invitation of Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will visit China from July 23 to 26.

Today, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba arrived in Beijing, becoming the first Ukrainian top official to pay an official visit to China. It is stated that he will discuss a peaceful settlement there with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
[...]
The Chinese "peace plan" differs from what Putin recently announced: Beijing offered to freeze the war on the front line, starting negotiations. While the Kremlin, as a condition for negotiations, demands the transfer of the entire territory of the four south-eastern regions to it.

Apparently, this is what Ukrainian diplomacy plans to focus on—so that Moscow reduces its demands closer to what China offered. After that, a window opens for negotiations (especially since Zelensky has repeatedly hinted that he is ready to postpone the issue of territories for later, stopping the war first).
[...]

Reuters: Foreign Minister Wang Yi today held talks with his Ukrainian counterpart in Guangzhou, according to sources. Are you able to provide any further information on what was discussed?
Mao Ning: This morning, Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Guangzhou.
[...]
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China ushered in a new journey of comprehensively deepening reform. China's all-round modernization endeavor will bring new opportunities to people from all countries. Ukraine is one of the first countries to support and participate in Belt and Road cooperation.
[...]
Recently, both Ukraine and Russia have expressed to varying degrees the willingness to negotiate. Although the conditions and timing are not yet ripe, we support all efforts conducive to peace and will continue to play a constructive role to enable a ceasefire and resume the peace talks. China cares about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and will continue to provide humanitarian aid supplies.
[...]

Founder and leader Andriy Biletskyi is a far-right activist and former member of parliament who has acknowledged his far-right ultraconservative stance, but denied association with Nazism or white supremacy, dismissing such accusations as Russian propaganda. He told one publication: "Today, Ukrainians have only one option of political orientation: for or against Ukraine."

The 3rd Separate Assault Brigade will conduct a European tour of European cities to introduce the service in the unit.The brigade's press service reported on this.

theleftchapter | Azov on the road. Neo-Nazi brigade tours Europe. Appearances also planned in Germany., 16 July

In particular, the soldiers will visit such cities as Warsaw, Wroclaw, Berlin, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Brussels, Prague, Vilnius, etc.

Vitaly said they wanted to give civilians an accurate picture of the reality on the ground, "because they will read Russian fake news on the internet that everything is a mess, that everyone is dead and there is nothing at all," he said.

malaysiasun | Auschwitz Museum responds to RT's Ukrainian Nazi expose, 19 July
3rd Brigade envoy Nikita Miroschenko, the Instagram content creator

"That's why we pass on information first-hand, communicate with them on any issues," added Vitaly, who said he was grieving his brother's death on the front line.

"We came to our people in Europe. Because they are our voice in Europe," Vitaly, a 21-year-old fighter with the callsign Gats, said ahead of the sold-out event in Warsaw. "If Ukraine fails, Poland will be next, and the Baltic countries. And they need to understand this. Russia will not stop. It will not stop at all," he told AFP. He spoke alongside his tour-mates at the Odessa Club, a graffiti-tagged arts loft and events space tucked away in an industrial part of downtown Warsaw.

While the brigade was able to hold a gathering in Warsaw, the public in several other cities proved to be less hospitable. A welfare organization in Rotterdam, Wmo Radar, said it had decided "to no longer host the controversial event" due to "negative media attention." Local politicians had spoken out against the event, calling it "undesirable" and not politically neutral.

In Berlin, local left-wing groups also said they intended to protest outside the hotel hosting the brigade, with politician Ferat Kocak saying that the German capital "does not need additional meeting points for the extreme right... no militaristic propaganda, not even under the guise of solidarity with the Ukrainian people."

Amid the backlash, the 3rd Assault Brigade said on Thursday that events in Berlin, Rotterdam, Brussels, and Cologne would not take place "for security reasons," adding it had no intention of "exposing our people to threats." It reiterated however, that two meetings—in Prague and Vilnius—were still on the schedule.

The unit added that the ticket price—which is around €20—would be reimbursed and that "we will definitely meet and talk with Ukrainians in these cities another time."