You're reading: Yatsenyuk accuses parliament of ‘sabotaging’ Ukraine’s IMF, World Bank programs; seeks to impose ‘war tax’

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who resigned as prime minister last week over parliament's failure to pass legislation required to gain multi-bilion dollar International Monetary Fund and World Bank loans, called on lawmakers to pass emergency funding during a July 31 special session. 

“I address the whole parliament independent of their color and ambitions for the next elections,” Yatsenyuk said. “I call you to come on Thursday and vote.”

Ukraine’s parliament needs to approve emergency funding to finance Ukraine’s military offensive against Russian-led separatists in the east and also needs to adopt legislation designed to make Ukraine less energy-dependent on Russia.

He also talked about the need to impose a special war tax of 1.5 percent from salaries until the end of the year to finance the military. “The money will go directly to finance the army,” he said.

Yatsenyuk also offered to cancel oil and gas taxes if the industries will use the saved money to invest in new exploration.