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Ukraine threatens to stop debt payments to Russia

Xinhua, November 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said here Friday that Kiev could stop repaying its multi-billion debt to Russia if Moscow does not agree on its restructuring.

"If Russia does not accept the restructuring, the government will introduce a moratorium on the debt payments," Yatsenyuk told reporters.

He pointed out that Kiev is offering to Moscow the same conditions of the debt restructuring as to other lenders, who have joined Ukraine's credit relief deal.

In August, the Ukrainian government and a group of its international creditors have reached an agreement, which envisages a 20-percent write-off of Kiev's outstanding foreign debts and a 4-year extension of the loan repayment period.

Russia has reportedly declined to join the debt-restructuring talks and said it would file a lawsuit against Ukraine to the international court if the debt payments were not met.

Ukraine got a 3-billion-U.S.-dollar loan in the form of Eurobonds from Russia in December 2013 to shore up its economy amid financial crisis. The loan matures next month.

In May, the Ukrainian parliament granted the government the right to impose a moratorium on state debt repayment, which was widely seen as a tool to improve Kiev's position in debt-restructuring talks with foreign lenders. Endi