Merkel Pledges Further Financial Aid for Ukraine

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged on Monday that Berlin would continue providing financial support to Kiev.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — On Monday, the German chancellor was holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Berlin.

"We will definitely talk about the support of Ukraine in economic issues. As part of the plan of action of the [German] federal government in 2015, we have allocated 700 million euros [some $763 million] to Ukraine, and we want to continue our support in 2016," Merkel told journalists ahead of the talks with Poroshenko.

In April 2015, Berlin and Kiev signed a memorandum on providing Ukraine with 500 million euros of financial support during Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's visit to Germany. Yatsenyuk said then that 200 million euros were due to be allotted to budget support, while the rest were planned to be spent on infrastructure investment projects.

After the memorandum had been singed, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Hennadiy Zubko pledged that Kiev would spend the funds for restoration of eastern Ukraine, including modernization of infrastructure and construction of housing.

Ukraine's economy has suffered a dramatic downturn since the launch of a military operation in April 2014 by Kiev against independence supporters in eastern Ukraine, who refused to recognize the government that came to power in Kiev after what they considered as a coup.