KIEV, May 12 – The $2.8 billion released by the International Monetary Fund to Ukraine under the two-year Stand-By Arrangement will be used to meet the public sector's external obligations, “freeing up resources to finance other spending, such as pensions and health," according to Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, the head of the IMF mission.

She said that the Fund's Articles of Agreement are framed sufficiently broadly to allow use of IMF resources for this purpose.