Ukraine's government has redeemed eurobonds issued to the state oil and gas company Naftogaz under state guarantees, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.
“The day before yesterday we paid off Naftogaz debts worth $1.67 billion … It wasn’t us who made them but it’s us who have to pay them back. If you don’t pay your debts, nobody will lend you again, and nobody will talk to you either,” a statement posted on a Cabinet Web site on Oct. 4 quoted Yatsenyuk as saying in a television program the night before.
Russia “hoped that we wouldn’t pay Naftogaz’s debts,” the premier said.
Moreover, some of the U.S. bankers and investors whom he met with during a recent visit to New York doubted that Ukraine would be able to raise the money, he said. “But the day before yesterday we paid everything down to the last kopeck, and we will be making payment no matter how difficult it is,” Yatsenyuk said.
