AFP, Kiev :
The IMF has announced a $14-$18 billion bailout for Ukraine at the UN General Assembly, refusing to recognise Russia’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula.
The vital economic breakthrough on Thursday was reached just as Ukraine’s presidential campaign heated up, with the announcement by opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko that she would contest the race to replace the ousted pro-Russian regime that sent her to jail.
Washington and its EU allies hope the rescue and a mounting diplomatic offensive against Russia should keep Ukraine on a stable enough footing to conduct snap polls on May 25 that could help unite the culturally splintered country of 46 million.
But the pledge of Western assistance comes amid growing worries about a rapid Russian buildup at Ukraine’s eastern border that one Kiev official said had now reached 100,000 troops.
The non-binding UN General Assembly measure passed with a comfortable majority in the 193-member body, with 100 votes in favour and 11 votes against. But 58 abstained and more than 20 did not vote.
Ukraine, which drafted the resolution, welcomed its adoption and called for a “stronger and more concrete” united, international front against Russian aggression.
However Moscow’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin claimed the vote was a “moral victory” for Russian diplomacy, saying that “almost half” the UN membership refused to support the resolution.
Among the abstentions were China, India and many South American nations. Israel and Iran were among those that did not vote.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday she hoped the threat of further sanctions would keep Russia’s expansionist ambitions in check following its annexation of Crimea-an incursion that has left the Kremlin more isolated from the West than at any stage since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
Kiev’s International Monetary Fund agreement-worth the equivalent of 10.8 to 13.1 billion euros-imposes tough economic conditions that will alter the lives Ukrainians who have grown accustomed to the comforts of Soviet-era subsidies and welfare benefits.
But it also appears to herald a fundamental shift from a reliance in Kiev on Russian help to save a crumbling system, to a commitment to the types of free- market efficiencies that could one day bring Ukraine far closer to the West.
“This significant support will help stabilise the economy and meet the needs of Ukrainian people over the long term because it provides the prospect for true growth,” US President Barack Obama said in Rome.
The Fund’s “standby arrangement” will form the heart of a broader package released by other governments and agencies amounting to $27 billion (19.6 billion euros) over the next two years.
Western support became essential for Ukraine once Russia froze payments on a $15 billion (10.9 billion euro) loan it awarded ousted president Viktor Yanukovych for his decision to ditch a historic EU trade and political relations pact.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has now made sure that Ukraine will be getting even more money from the West after earlier signing the political portion of the EU deal ditched by Yanukovych-moves that are likely to further unsettle the Kremlin.
Many of the interim leaders-from Yatsenyuk to acting President Oleksandr Turchynov-are either close allies or political proteges of former prime minister and opposition veteran Tymoshenko.
The 53-year-old has remained one of Ukraine’s most powerful but also divisive figures since the day she helped organise the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution that first tried to shake Kiev’s powerful links to the Kremlin.
The woman known at home as “the iron lady” moved centre stage by announcing plans to run for the presidency she lost to Yanukovych by a razor- thin margin in 2010.
