International help for the government of Ukraine

As violence in the east of the country increases, the Ukrainian economy, for which the industrial and more affluent east is important, continues to deteriorate. Western countries have offered political support to the Ukrainian government, have sent non-lethal weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces and have given hundreds of millions of pounds of aid, with billions more in loan facilities.

There have been predictions that the Ukrainian financial crisis will get worse and that Ukraine will need to borrow far more money to avoid financial collapse.

Western nations are divided as to whether to send lethal weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces. Meetings in Moscow and Minsk with the French and German leaders in February 2015 were described as a last chance to avert war.