MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Ukraine has a $3-billion sovereign loan from Russia that must be paid by the end of the year, otherwise Kiev will have to default, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
Russia holds $3-billion Ukrainian Eurobonds, due to mature by the end of 2015.
“This is a sovereign loan and, naturally, not paying it would mean a default situation,” Peskov told journalists.
In August, Ukraine’s Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko announced that Kiev had reached an agreement with its private sector creditors to restructure $18 billion of its $70-billion debt and write down the face value of $3.6 billion worth of Ukrainian bonds.
On October 15, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Kiev had suggested to Moscow to accept restructuring of the $3 billion debt, which Russia had purchased in Eurobonds in December 2013.
However, top-ranking Russian officials, including Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, have previously argued that Moscow did not have any plans of discussing restructuring Ukraine’s sovereign debt.
