Russian, European Leaders Discuss Ukrainian Elections, Cease-Fire
The leaders of France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine have agreed to accelerate the pullback of heavy weapons in east Ukraine and talk next week about holding local elections as Ukraine decentralizes its government.
"The importance of having a single date for the organization of local elections in the whole of Ukraine -- including some sectors of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk -- was underlined," said a statement from French President Francois Hollande's office after the leaders' two-hour phone conversation.
Further telephone talks on decentralization and elections are scheduled for July 28.
On weapons, the leaders agreed that preliminary accords to extend a pullback of weapons in east Ukraine should be signed quickly.
Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists agreed earlier this week that tanks and smaller weapons systems should also be withdrawn in addition to heavy artillery, as was previously agreed.
Under a cease-fire agreement brokered in Minsk in February, weapons of over 100-mm caliber should have already been withdrawn, but both sides accuse the other of continuing to use heavy artillery. Casualties are reported almost daily from their use.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Ukraine makes crunch bond payment, staving off default
Kiev, July 24, 2015 (AFP) -- Ukraine on Friday made a crucial Eurobond interest payment that kept the war-torn country from slipping into technical default and potential isolation from global credit markets.
Two sources close to the situation told AFP that money to cover the $120 million (110 million euro) coupon was transferred as soon as business hours opened in Kiev.
The $2.6 billion note matures in July 2017.
The cash-strapped former Soviet nation now has two more months to negotiate a debt restructuring deal before it faces a tougher deadline to pay more than $500 million on another Eurobond.
Franklin Templeton and three other US financial titans own about two-thirds of the debt upon which Ukraine is trying to find savings of $15.3 billion (13.7 billion euros) over the coming four years.
That target is part of a $40 billion global package the International Monetary Fund patched up to help Ukraine weather an economic implosion that was exasperated by the pro-Russian revolt in its industrial east.
The IMF signalled on Thursday that it could release $1.7 billion in fresh bailout funds next week even if Ukraine fails to reach the private sector debt relief deal.
But some analysts called the very fact that Ukraine made Friday's payment an indication of Kiev's talks with the US giants proceeding smoothly after more than three months of delay.
"If there was no progress in the negotiations, we would have not payed the coupon so easily," Dragon Capital investment firm analyst Sergiy Fursa said in a research note.
"Judging by the latest news from the closed-door talks, which both sides give out very unwillingly, their advisers are engaged in active negotiations and now working on the technical details of a deal," Fursa wrote.
Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko had repeatedly threatened to impose a debt repayment moratorium as early as Friday should the bondholders fail to take a more compromising stand toward Kiev during talks now underway in Washington.
- 'Further progress expected' -
The IMF on Thursday raised market expectation of a restructuring agreement being struck before its board discusses Ukraine at a meeting tentatively set for July 31.
IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters that Jaresko's team and the so-called Ad Hoc Committee of Ukraine's Bondholders "have been making good progress in their discussions."
"Further progress is expected by July 31," Rice said.
Kiev's international allies are pitching in as part of their own effort to keep the strategic east European nation from slipping back into its historic reliance on Russia -- an uneasy neighbour that denies involvement in Ukraine's separatist war.
But a technical default sparked by the lack of a commercial debt compromise would make the longer-term cost of borrowing even more expensive and push back Ukraine's prospects for a quick return to growth.
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has also urged lenders to support Washington's efforts to help the pro-Western leadership that rose to power in the wake of last year's popular overthrow of a Russian-backed president.