Page 38 - UKRRptDec21

with no choice and ultimately coerced by Russia into entering the contracts for the bonds,” MinFin commented. “Either the bonds should be set aside by the Court for duress ... or the legal proceedings should be stayed ... if the English Court considers it cannot ... proceed to hear Ukraine’s defence,” MinFin stated. It provided no timing of a possible ruling of the Supreme Court. “Ukraine remains confident of a positive outcome in the proceedings, which are brought as part of a broader strategy of aggression against Ukraine that continues to be waged by Russia to this day,” MinFin wrote.
Recall, Ukraine issued a two-year $3bn Eurobond in December 2013 that was purchased solely by a Russian state fund. The issue was a part of a promise by Russian President Putin to lend Ukraine $15bn ($3bn each quarter, while in fact, only the initial tranche had been provided). The debt was provided to help the country resolve the deficit of dollar liquidity, as other financing sources became impossible at that time because Ukraine had lost its Western support after then-president Yanukovych had declined to sign an Association Agreement with the EU a month before. In 2015, the Russian side declined to enter into a restructuring of this debt, while Ukraine managed to restructure all the other Eurobond issues for $15bn.
The Russian side initiated a lawsuit in the UK to force Ukraine into repaying the debt in 2016. In March 2017, the High Court of London rejected all four defense arguments of Ukraine and allowed the Ukrainian side to appeal. In September 2018, the Court of Appeal in London ruled that one Ukrainian argument (the duress argument) was rejected wrongly by the first-tier court, and the case was later directed to the UK Supreme Court.
7.0 FX
Ukraine FX
Nov 2020
Dec 2020
Jan 2021
Feb 2021
Mar 2021
Apr 2021
May 2021
June 2021
July 2021
Aug 2021
Sept 2021
Oct 2021
Nov 2021
Currency (units per EUR) (average)
33.5
34.3
34.3
33.7
33.1
33.4
33.5
32.8
32.2
31.5
30.6
30.6
30.2
Currency (units per USD) (average)
28.3
28.2
28.2
27.9
27.8
27.9
27.6
27.2
27.2
26.8
26.4
26.4
26.5
source: NBU
Fighting a flood of dollars, Ukraine’s central bank bought more than half a billion dollars during the first three days of the second week of November in a battle to keep the hryvnia from over strengthening. Since the start of this year, the National Bank of Ukraine has made net purchases of $3 billion to prevent the hryvnia from strengthening over 26 to the dollar. Today’s rate is UAH 26.06 to the dollar.
38 UKRAINE Country Report December 2021 www.intellinews.com