Sergii Marchenko: We call on our partners to eliminate russia's toxic presence in international organizations

Today, on May 18, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko delivered a speech online at the plenary session of the EBRD Annual Meetings of the Governors, taking place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

During the speech, Sergii Marchenko emphasized the need to exclude the russian federation from the EBRD and other international organizations:

“We call on our partners to continue looking at the options of altogether removing russia's toxic presence from respected international organizations such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. While Ukrainians wake up at night to the sounds of russian rockets, representatives of the russian federation still continue to speak at EBRD meetings.”

The Minister of Finance of Ukraine also noted that Russian attacks cause significant damage not only to Ukrainian business, but also to foreign companies operating in Ukraine, including assets financed by the EBRD. Sergii Marchenko called on international colleagues to closely cooperate with the Ukrainian authorities in recording such losses from the war in order to hold russia accountable.

“EBRD, our traditional partner, was one of the first development finance institutions, which responded to russia's brutal war against Ukraine last year. Yes, our attention was focused on ensuring the stability of the economy and public finances - we closely cooperated with the IMF, the World Bank and other donors,” said the Minister of Finance of Ukraine.

Sergii Marchenko also thanked the EBRD Governors for the extremely important support in preserving Ukraine's critical infrastructure, support for state-owned companies, as well as for investing in the private sector and financial institutions. He noted that this allowed Ukrainian enterprises to continue to work, export products and services, provide employment and pay taxes.

During the plenary meeting of the EBRD Governors, three resolutions were supported regarding the EBRD's Support for Resilience and Reconstruction in Ukraine, as well as regarding amendments to the EBRD's Agreement Establishing, which will provide an opportunity to increase the Statutory Capital and gradually expand the geographic scope of its activities.