Separately, Ukraine’s Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko reported Friday that Ukraine and the IMF have reached a compromise on anti-corruption and corporate governance reforms.

Last week, Marchenko had a series of meeting with IMF officials in Washington to try to restart the IMF lending program that stalled one year ago. The Finance Ministry statement concluded: “The parties agreed on close communication and joint work to be able to reach the Staff level agreement in the near future.” Earlier in the week, Economy Minister Oleksiy Lyubchenko said Ukraine’s government expecting to receive the $700 million loan tranche before the end of this year.