Against All Ratings? Yatsenyuk Still Claims Ukraine Unlikely to Default

Ukraine’s overall debt stands at roughly $70 billion, of which some $40 billion is owed to international money creditors, according to the country's finance ministry. Earlier this month, global rating agencies, including Fitch and Standard & Poor's downgraded Ukraine's ratings, forecasting a possibility of default for the country.

KIEV (Sputnik) — Ukraine is unlikely to default, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Sunday.

"Our enemies and political opponents expected default… in Ukraine. It has not happened and will not happen. We know what to do, and do it," Yatsenyuk told the TSN television channel.

Ukraine's economy has deteriorated since an armed conflict between Kiev and Donbass self-proclaimed republics' forces erupted in April 2014 in the country's southeast. Since the beginning of the conflict, Ukraine’s national currency, the hryvnia, has been devalued almost threefold, and the GDP has been continuously decreasing.

On Thursday, Ukraine’s Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko announced that Kiev had reached an agreement with private creditors to write down 20 percent in Ukrainian bonds’ face value, among other measures.