MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko and US Ambassador to Kiev Bridget Brink signed a bilateral agreement to defer payments on the national debt, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry reported.

"The signing of this agreement will reduce the debt burden on the state budget and direct funds that should have been paid to repay and service debt obligations, for the needs of the social and humanitarian areas," the ministry cites the head of the department in its Telegram channel.

The ministry noted that the conclusion of the agreement was stipulated by a memorandum of understanding regarding the suspension of payments on public debt with a group of official creditors of Ukraine from the G7 countries and the Paris Club.

Earlier, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Financial Committee Daniil Getmantsev said citing data from the Ukrainian Finance Ministry that as of February 29, Ukraine’s state and state-guaranteed debt amounted to 490.1 billion hryvnia ($143.7 billion). Of this, 69.7% was external duty. Getmantsev also recalled that at this stage, the debt burden on the budget is eased by the fact that the external debt has been largely restructured. The debt to official creditors from the G7, the Paris Club was restructured until the end of March 2027, the debt to commercial creditors - until August 2024, but they are also preparing negotiations to extend the restructuring until 2027.

As for the current budget, according to experts, Ukraine will only have enough money until the end of summer or even only until the end of spring. At this stage, the lack of money is compensated by internal borrowing - the Finance Ministry almost weekly holds auctions for the placement of domestic government loan bonds. Since the beginning of the year, more than 100 billion hryvnia (about $2.6 billion) have been raised.