Ukraine confident Russia can’t hold IMF aid ‘hostage’
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Kyiv. Ukraine is confident the international community will not let Russia hold “hostage” an IMF bailout package that Kyiv needs to avoid default, a source close to the Ukrainian government said Saturday, AFP reports.
Russia has been blocking the International Monetary Fund’s $17.5-billion rescue plan for Ukraine, which hinges on Kyiv’s ability to restructure billions of dollars in debt, including some held by Moscow.
“There’s little appetite in the world to let Russia, after all that has happened, take hostage the IMF program for Ukraine. It’s not going to happen,” the Ukrainian source said on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Lima, Peru.
Moscow has refused to budge on the repayment of $3 billion it issued to Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovych in the months preceeding his February 2014 ouster by waves of pro-European protests.
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