KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament will vote on a flurry of laws this week to secure further financing from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
At stake is US$4.3 billion (S$5.51 billion) linked to reforms demanded by the foreign backers, lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said in a post on Telegram.
The 16 Bills, which cover everything from labour standards to updated anti-money laundering rules, are likely to pass.
The legislation most relevant to unlocking the funding will face votes through Oct 14, according to a parliamentary schedule.
The short notice has left Members of Parliament reading up on the laws “like bad students the night before a test,” according to opposition lawmaker Volodymyr Ariev.
The urgency is a result of Ukraine’s foreign donors getting tougher in their demands that Kyiv crack down on graft and improve transparency of spending.
Scrutiny has grown following a series of corruption scandals over the past year featuring key politicians, among them allies of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The bevy of Bills tries to assuage those concerns, particularly over money laundering.
Already earlier in October, the EU refused Kyiv’s requests to speed up loan payments to cover military costs and demanded further reforms.
US President Donald Trump has also ramped up pressure on Ukraine.
He has called on Kyiv to halt strikes against Russian oil refineries and cut a deal with President Vladimir Putin to release Russian diesel into global markets in an attempt to lower energy prices ahead of midterm elections.
The deal is set to deepen Ukraine’s financial disadvantage in the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion by helping to fuel Moscow’s war machine.
Meanwhile, Kyiv faces a loss of revenue from exports due to Russian air strikes on Black Sea.
The package of laws to be debated in Parliament is based on the Cabinet’s interpretation of a series of requirements that Western allies made of Ukraine early in 2025.
For months, Ukraine’s powerful executive branch tried to unlock those funds on its own terms by watering down international donors’ less popular demands.
Now it has no choice but to pass the Bills.
IMF estimates Ukraine’s budget shortfall at over US$30 billion in 2027.
The EU has demanded that economic reforms have to come before it’s ready to plug that gap.
A divisive issue is the status of “politically exposed persons” who face increased financial monitoring.
Many lawmakers and their families count as PEPs themselves and regularly complain that the status is burdensome due to additional financial checks.
Some versions of the legislation propose lifelong PEP status for Ukrainian lawmakers and the reversal of a recent amendment that eased banks’ treatments of PEPs.
However, international donors oppose any relaxation of those rules.
Two people familiar with the matter said they expected the amendment to be the most contentious issue, adding that a failure to reverse it could derail government efforts to secure further funding from the IMF and the EU.
The question has become so heated that many lawmakers have demanded Zelenskyy dismiss the central bank governor, as they believe he supports maintaining the current PEP rules, the people said.
Many other elements of the Bills, including tightening tax loopholes and expanding taxes on online platforms and personal shipping, are unpopular among the Ukrainian public.
That’s partly why there has been little motion on the package since the start of 2025.
While Zelensky’s Servant of the People party may control a majority in Parliament, he must still deal with open dissent over key issues.
As the war has ground on, several of its lawmakers have formed a de-facto “internal opposition,” said political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko.
Martial law in Ukraine has forestalled presidential elections, but it’s also frozen the Parliament’s composition.
With the last parliamentary election held in 2019, lawmakers “lose the impetus to impress their constituencies” and can act more freely, said Susan Stewart, a researcher at the Berlin-based SWP think tank focusing on Ukrainian domestic politics.
“Our Parliament today resembles a senior citizen with a bunch of ailments, when it’s tough for them to walk, it’s tough for them to work – but they have to work, and they have to go to the doctor constantly,” said Fesenko.
“Plenty of the deputies want to leave politics and, well, the Parliament too.” BLOOMBERG