The 48-month arrangement replaces an earlier facility, and is expected to support Kyiv as authorities push to maintain economic stability as the war with Russia enters a fifth year.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff and Ukrainian authorities had reached a staff-level deal on this funding in November.

But the program was contingent upon securing financing assurances and enacting a budget, among other elements.

“The overarching goals of the authorities’ new program are to continue anchoring economic and financial stability, restore debt sustainability” and advance reforms that will help with post-war recovery and support Ukraine’s aim for accession to the European Union, said the IMF.

“Ukraine and its people have weathered a long and devastating war for over four years with remarkable resilience,” added IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in a statement.

The new arrangement “aims to preserve the hard-won macroeconomic and financial stability as well as to extend and deepen structural reforms as the war continues,” she added.

IMF spokeswoman Julie Kozack said earlier this month that Ukraine had met all conditions required for board approval for the deal.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died since Russia invaded its neighbor on Feb 24, 2022, unleashing the deadliest war on European soil since World War II.

The IMF has made more than US$10 billion — not including Thursday’s new US$8.1 billion program — available to Ukraine since the start of the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that he expected the next round of talks to end the war with Russia in early March in Abu Dhabi.