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Russian, Ukrainian finance ministers fail to agree on Kiev’s $3bln debt restructuring

Siluanov and his Ukrainian counterpart Natalia Yaresko met in Lima, Peru, on Friday on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank semi-annual meetings

LIMA, October 10./TASS/. The finance ministers of Russia and Ukraine reached no agreement on Friday to restructure the $3 billion debt Kiev owes to Moscow, but will maintain the dialogue, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said.

Siluanov and his Ukrainian counterpart Natalia Yaresko met in Lima, Peru, on Friday on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund [IMF] and the World Bank [WB] semi-annual meetings.

"We stated our position on the need to repay the debt owed to Russia. The colleagues from Ukraine’s finance ministry said they have no such money in budget and suggested that we participate in its restructuring along with commercial creditors," Siluanov said.

"Russia had another position: we are not a commercial creditor, we are a sovereign creditor, that’s why such conditions are unacceptable for us," he told reporters following the meeting.

The Ukrainian side officially said after the meeting that Yaresko provided details on the deal on restructuring the debt and called on Russia to participate in it. Moscow could accept the invitation until October 29.

Russian expects Ukraine to repay the debt in full in December this year, Siluanov reiterated on Friday. Yaresko said Kiev was not planning to offer Russia more favorable conditions on repayment of the Eurobond than those worked out by a group of private creditors.

Russia made a decision in late 2013 to invest up to $15 billion in Ukraine’s sovereign Eurobonds. Soon afterwards, Russia bought Ukraine’s first Eurobond tranche worth $3 billion with a two-year maturity and a coupon rate of 5% per annum and coupon payments every six months.

Russia subsequently decided against investing the other $12 billion in Ukraine’s bonds.

Ukraine transferred $75 million to Russia in late June in tranche payment for its $3 billion Eurobond on time.

Russia has held a tough position on the possibility of easing the debt repayment terms for Ukraine, consistently refusing to take part in negotiations and debt restructuring programs offered by Kiev.