“I stress, once again, that we are ready for a legal process with the Russian side”.
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The sanctions were imposed past year in response to the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine by Russia and the Kremlin support support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. “Under the terms of the new Ukrainian bonds issued on Nov.12, in the debt exchange, Ukraine is prohibited from paying holdout creditors in accordance with the original contractual terms”, the statement added.
“This is absolutely incorrect”, Peskov said after a journalist asked him if it was possible to say that Russian military specialists were present in southeast Ukraine at some point of the conflict there.
Some diplomats in Brussels said this might be the last time economic sanctions get rolled over in their entirety as France and other members have sought to reengage with Moscow on countering terrorism and seeking an end to the war in Syria.
Kiev has been trying to give a political dimension to the debt, suggesting that Moscow bought Ukrainian bonds in December 2013 in what it calls an act of bribery by the then president, a close ally of Russian Federation.
“We have expected these actions – looking at the line of conduct that the Ukrainian authorities have exercised in the last six months”, Storchak told journalists. “Without growth – credits are not returned”.
The European Union has agreed to prolong the anti-Russian sanctions, but the decision will be officially announced later, the Interfax news agency reported Friday, citing Elmar Brok, head of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee. Ukraine has insisted that the loan should be considered private and should, therefore, be exempt from the International Monetary Fund’s rules that require Kiev to make good on its sovereign debt as part of its IMF bailout package, which the country desperately needs to overhaul its struggling economy.
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The moratorium means that Ukraine is likely to default on the debt, which is due on Sunday.
