Cease-fire violations in eastern Ukraine cause concern

The video fuels Ukraine’s suspicion that Russian Federation is backing separatists in the eastern part of the country, an accusation Moscow has vehemently denied.

Ukraine, which needs to execute an agreement before a $500 million note falls due on September 23, said August. 7 that this week marked the “final opportunity” for an accord.

The group has refused to accept any major reduction to its bonds’ face value and wants a proposed maturity extension to expire as soon as Ukraine’s imploding economy returns to growth.

Since the start of the pro-Russian insurgency in east Ukraine after the ouster last year of a Russian-backed president in Kiev, Ukraine has lost control of some 410 kilometers of its frontier in the east.

In Washington on Monday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United States was “deeply troubled” by the rise in attacks, which he said had left three Ukrainian soldiers dead and 35 wounded in the past several days. Kiev has warned it would halt debt payments if an agreement is not reached this week. Discussions in San Francisco were “detailed” and talks are “ongoing”, according to Friday’s release.

The worldwide Monetary Fund (IMF) has made debt restructuring a condition for Ukraine to receive all the tranches of the $17.5 billion bailout that the organization is providing.

Ukraine and its biggest creditors failed to strike a deal on the second day of talks aimed at finding a workable solution for keeping the ex-Soviet country from hurtling into default.

Optimism that Franklin Templeton will succeed at securing terms favorable to creditors helped push the 2017 notes up 1.9 cents this week alone.

“The report to be published later will contain more evidence provided by eyewitnesses, combatants and commanders as to what other ways existed [to resolve the Ilovaisk situation]”, advisor to the General Staff Chief Ruslan Kavatsiuk said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday. Ukraine’s Eurobonds have returned 4.9 percent in the past month, the most in a Bloomberg emerging- market bond index. Even at $100 per barrel, many commentators were questioning the wisdom of pursuing projects which would cost many tens of billions of dollars to develop, while also bringing significant environmental risks in the case of oil spills or accidents.

The EU formerly sent about 10 percent of its food exports to Russian Federation, worth about $13 billion.