An International Monetary Fund mission, led by Gavin Gray, the Fund’s mission chief for Ukraine, started meetings on Monday with Ukrainian authorities and other stakeholders as part of a staff visit, the IMF’s Representative Office in Ukraine told Kyiv Post in an official letter. Discussions will focus on the outlook for Ukraine’s economy, the government’s macroeconomic and structural reform commitments under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF), and the 2027 draft state budget. JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.The Fund’s formal notice came three days after Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak wrote in his Telegram post that the mission had already touched down. In a Telegram post published Aug. 28, Zhelezniak wrote: “Starting Friday (August 28), the IMF mission is arriving in Ukraine again. It will be assessing progress (or rather its absence) throughout next week.”The visit opens the first review of Ukraine’s four-year, $8.1 billion EFF program, as Kyiv has fallen behind on several prior actions and structural benchmarks due before the end of summer, according to the Fund’s First Review Memorandum table.During the second review in September, the Fund must pin down the size of Ukraine’s 2027 financing gap together with Ukrainian officials. “I am pretty sure there will be a need for additional money, given Russia’s continued attack on Ukrainian infrastructure,” the well-informed source told Kyiv Post back in an exclusive article published in June.