Ukraine imposes moratorium on ‘Yanukovych’s debt’ repayment – Yatsenyuk
Even if a prisoner swap takes place, the Russian president said he expects relations with Ukraine to further deteriorate following its decision to enter a trade deal with the European Union.
“The Ukrainian Government has indeed negotiated in good faith all along and in line with the IMF-supported Program’s debt operation targets, without prejudice to its position on the underlying debt obligations themselves”, the Ukrainian ministry of finance said, in a statement released Thursday.
This distinction would allow Kyiv to treat the transaction as a private debt. “We are prepared for court action from the Russian side”, he said.
Yatsenyuk announced the payment freeze at a government meeting in Kyiv on Friday, saying the step was needed after Russian Federation “refused to sign an agreement on restructuring”.
In August, the Ukrainian cabinet and a group of its other worldwide creditors have reached an agreement, which envisages a 20-percent write-off of 15 billion USA dollars of Kyiv’s foreign debts and a 4-year extension of the loan repayment period.
“Our Ukrainian colleagues have no chance of winning this case”, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak told state television on Friday. The two sides indicated this month that they were open to negotiations to restructure the debt and have been using German officials to mediate indirect talks.
Heated debates at the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv have in the past spilled over into scuffles.
Prices of Ukraine’s dollar denominate bonds were steady on Friday, according to Tradeweb data.
Ukraine’s struggling economy relies on International Monetary Fund aid. Emerging markets have been hit this year as capital moved out ahead of an expected increase in US interest rates.
“We never said there weren’t people (in Ukraine) who work on resolving various issues there, including in the military sphere“, Putin said during his annual news conference.
Lawmakers from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s party, the largest faction in parliament, proposed postponing tax reform until 2016.
