By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Canada, Germany and the United States have already committed more than $2B to a new account administered by The International Monetary Fund. It was established to assist war-torn Ukraine. Gerry Rice, spokesperson for IMF, stated that other countries also expressed an interest.

Rice refused to give an estimate of the amount that could go into the account but stated that the IMF would love it to be “as big as possible” given Ukraine’s enormous defense needs against Russian invasion.

Since Moscow began what it called a “specially military operation” Feb. 24, thousands have died.

Rice stated that although the IMF was unable to provide an exact or complete assessment of the damage caused by the war, the Kyiv School of Economics had estimated late May that there were already $105 billion in physical infrastructure damages.

Rice stated that the sum would have been “much greater” if Rice included economic losses due to reduced output and business closings as well as forgone revenues and investments.

In March the IMF approved emergency funding of $1.4 billion to Ukraine. This was in addition to its existing expenditures and to shore up its current balance.

Rice claimed that Ukrainian officials had expressed their willingness for an IMF supported program to support the stabilization of the economy and to work on reconstruction. However, this will have to wait until certain conditions are met.

He stated that the current focus is on increasing emergency and near-term international donor support, such as through the IMF-administered account created in April.

Canada initially donated $1 billion Canadian dollars, but has raised it by $250 million Canadian Dollars since.

Germany announced also a $1 billion grant to Ukraine. Other member countries are considering channeling support through the account.

Donors will be able to loan and grant loans and grants to the Ukrainian government in order to balance its finances and stabilize its economy.