The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it would dispatch a team to Ukraine to determine just how much extra aid the war-wrecked and energy-starved nation will need to make it through winter. The nine-day visit due to start on Tuesday (Dec 9) comes as Ukraine suffers rolling blackouts and resentment grows over a severe IMF-prescribed austerity drive, Channel NewsAsia reported Sunday. The Fund has helped piece together a $27-billion global rescue package – promising to contribute $17 billion of that sum over two years – in the weeks that followed the February ouster in Kiev of a Russian-backed president.
