Ukraine says it may freeze debt payments to fund war

[bemildred]

KIEV: Ukraine's premier warned Friday that Kiev would freeze its debt repayments if no immediate deal was found with private lenders because it had to fund its escalating campaign against pro-Russian fighters.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on his return from a crunch visit to Washington that the International Monetary Fund had given his embattled government a few weeks' reprieve to enact laws needed for the release of new loans.

But the Western-backed cabinet leader said the Fund has signaled its readiness to let Ukraine restructure debts at its own pace -- and that interest payments to Western commercial lenders and Russia may stop as early as next week.

"Today, Ukraine spends as much on foreign and domestic debt servicing as it does on defense," Yatsenyuk told a government meeting.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2015/Jun-12/301812-ukraine-says-it-may-freeze-debt-payments-to-fund-war.ashx

[bemildred]

1. U.S. envoy: Other than UN Security Council mechanisms needed to resolve Ukraine problem

"We can't get out of the [UN] Security Council what we need, and the Security Council doesn't live up to its responsibilities because it has given a country – that is an aggressor – in 2014 and 2015 this privilege of having a veto, but we can work through other mechanisms," she said in Kyiv on Thursday, an UNIAN correspondent reported.

"And the other mechanism <…> is Western democracy, is Europe and the United States, and others who have – within their power – the ability to stand up for these norms and to put in place measures that will definitely take their toll on the Russian economy in the first instance and – over time – will take their toll on the Russian calculus," she added.

According to her, "workarounds" need to be found to resolve Ukraine's problem.

In her words, Russia uses its right to veto at the UN Security Council not only in case with Ukraine, but also with Syria, for example, when it refused to condemn the Syrian authorities for the use of chemical weapons.

http://www.unian.info/politics/1088566-us-envoy-other-than-un-security-council-mechanisms-needed-to-resolve-ukraine-problem.html

[Fred Sanders]

2. If only Greece shared a border with Russia and was also willing to join NATO and station nuclear missiles a

stone's throw away from Moscow.....how forgiving the same money lenders/plutocrats would also be?