KYIV, April 13 – Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko on Wednesday evening signed a loan agreement with the government of Canada to provide Ukraine with 500 million Canadian dollars (CAD, about $400 million at the current exchange rate).

"As of now, this is the largest bilateral intergovernmental loan for Ukraine. The funds are provided to us on favorable terms with a maturity of 10 years," the minister wrote on Facebook.

Marchenko specified that the loan proceeds would be used to finance priority government spending, and thanked the Government of Canada and personally Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Canada Chrystia Freeland for the decision.

As reported, Canada this fiscal year (until July 1) provided Ukraine with CAD 145 million in humanitarian assistance and CAD 35 million in development assistance to provide direct support to Ukrainians affected by the illegal Russian invasion, as well as loans totaling CAD 620 million for support for Ukraine's financial stability, economic sustainability and governance reforms. The first CAD 120 million loan was announced on January 21 and additional CAD 500 million mentioned above was announced on February 14.

Next year's budget announced that Ottawa would offer CAD 1 billion in new lending resources to Kyiv through a new managed account for Ukraine at the International Monetary Fund and another CAD 500 million in military aid, in addition to CAD 90 million already committed this year. (om/ez)