| Media Search: |
CrossTalk: Ukraine Wedged in the Middle
Ukraine wedged in the middle. The political establishment in Kiev has made it clear it wants membership in some of the West #39;s most elitist clubs like NATO and the EU. Clearly a turn away...
By: RT
IMF Says Ukraine Needs USD 15 Billion: Additional funds to avert economic collapse
Ukraine will need another USD 15 billion in assistance from the International Monetary Fund. That #39;s according to a report appearing in the Financial Times. Check out our website: http://uatoday.t...
By: UKRAINE TODAY
Read more:
IMF Says Ukraine Needs USD 15 Billion: Additional funds to avert economic collapse - Video
Ukraine Crisis - Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 Intercepts Russian Planes Over Baltic Sea
Ukraine Crisis - Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 Intercepts Russian Planes Over Baltic Sea. The Royal Netherlands Air Force released footage showing RNAF F-16s intercepting Russian Planes...
By: WarLeaks
Read the original here:
Ukraine Crisis - Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 Intercepts Russian Planes Over Baltic Sea - Video
Ukraine said it needs an expansion of a bailout program thats keeping its economy afloat as bonds fell to a record and government forces continued to come under attack from pro-Russian separatists in the east.
Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius said yesterday its too early to say how much more aid Ukraine requires. The country may need to almost double its $17 billion emergency loan within weeks to avoid bankruptcy, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified officials. Representatives from the International Monetary Fund arrived in Kiev this week to discuss further payments under the existing program and a possible expansion.
Concerns are growing that the government in Kiev will be unable to repay its debts as the months-long fighting in two breakaway regions takes its toll on Ukraines economy. The countrys credit-default swaps are the highest worldwide after Venezuela, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The financing which Ukraine needs is so large, and the Western financing likely on offer or available of much smaller size, said Tim Ash, London-based chief emerging-market economist at Standard Bank Group Ltd.
The price of Ukraines dollar-denominated bonds maturing in July 2017 tumbled 6 cents to 67.3 cents on the dollar yesterday in Kiev, the lowest level on record. The yield surged to 27.582 percent, almost double the yield on bonds maturing in 2023.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was said to have asked Russias Anton Siluanov to let Ukraine delay the repayment of $3 billion in bonds issued last year, according to the Financial Times, which reported that the IMF found a $15 billion shortfall in the countrys budget. Russia has the right to call an early repayment of the notes, due in December 2015, if Ukraines public debt tops 60 percent of economic output.
That ratio may jump to 70 percent by the end of the year, Moodys Investors Service said Oct. 30.
The new Ukrainian government of Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk needs to adopt a 2015 budget and tax laws complying with IMF requirements to qualify for the next $2.8 billion disbursement of its bailout package. Ukraine needs the cash to repay debt, buy heating fuel for winter and stem the hryvnias slump.
The economy shrank 5.3 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter, more than the 5.1 percent preliminary estimate, according to the Kiev-based statistics office.
Yatsenyuk is scheduled to speak in parliament in the Ukrainian capital today as lawmakers consider the cabinets budget plans.
Read more:
Ukraine Seeks Bigger IMF Package as Bonds Slump to Record
Published December 10, 2014
Dec. 11, 2014: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, right, holds a book given to him by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as they meet at the federal government office(AP)
SYDNEY Australia pledged its support for Ukraine during a visit by the nation's president on Thursday, with Australia's prime minister calling for an end to the bloody conflict in Eastern Europe and Ukraine's leader urging Russia to withdraw.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a sharp critic of Russia since Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in July over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, said Russia must honor a little-respected cease-fire agreement signed in September.
Asked by a journalist if Australia was taking sides in a European war, Abbott replied: "The side we take is the side of freedom, democracy and self-determination.... And plainly, freedom, democracy and self-determination are currently at risk in parts of Eastern Europe."
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in Australia for a three-day visit, urged Russia to withdraw from the region, where both sides have been engaged in a one-day truce that Poroshenko proposed in a bid to revive the September cease-fire deal.
"Please stop the fire. Please release the hostages. Please withdraw your troops from my territory. Please close the border," Poroshenko said during a press conference in Melbourne. "And I promise if you close the border, within one, two, three weeks, we have peace and stability in Ukraine. Very simple."
Australia and Ukraine have formed close ties over the Flight 17 disaster, which killed everyone on board, including 38 Australian citizens and residents. Abbott and other Western leaders have accused Russia of providing military support for those who shot down the plane. Russian state-run TV has blamed Ukraine's air force.
"If it turns out that people under Russian authority had a hand in this, we absolutely expect them to be surrendered to investigators and to prosecutors because this is an atrocity," Abbott said. "It was mass murder on a vast scale."
The two also discussed a potential energy export deal, with the Ukrainian president saying his country may buy Australian uranium for its nuclear power stations, along with coal.
Read more from the original source:
Ukraine urges Russia to remove troops