Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk sought financial aid from Western donors and promised to adopt measures needed to steady an economy beset by a plunging currency and widening budget deficits.

"The new Ukrainian government is ready to deliver changes," Yatsenyuk said in Washington yesterday during a visit that included a meeting with President Barack Obama and Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

"We fully realize that the IMF program is not a sweet candy, but on the other hand, my country desperately needs real reforms to stabilize the Ukrainian economy," he said at a forum at the Atlantic Council, a research institute.

The $15 billion IMF loan Ukraine is seeking is key to unblocking aid pledged by the U.S. and the European Union to help stabilize the former Soviet republic after the ouster of its Russian-backed president. The challenge for Yatsenyuk is to convince the IMF it's serious about overhauling an economy that barely grew in the past two years and tops global rankings of corruption.

"Intentions are good, but the fund doesn't run on intentions, the fund runs on actions," said Martin Edwards, an associate professor at Seton Hall University's School of Diplomacy and International Relations in South Orange, New Jersey. "There are huge problems with that economy."

The country's industrial production has fallen for 20 straight months, and energy minister Yuri Prodan said the government faces a 37 percent increase in its bill for Russian natural gas. The economy may shrink by 3 percent this year after failing to grow last year, according to Capital Economics Ltd. in London.