Ukraine on Tuesday received a $2 billion loan from Russia, a source in the Ukrainian government told Interfax-Ukraine.
The funds were most likely provided under a joint Russian-Ukrainian project for the completion of two reactors at the Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant, the source said.
At the same time, the source did not elaborate on the creditor, saying that the currency was transferred to the government’s account, having thus considerably increased the international reserves of the National Bank of Ukraine.
Vitaliy Lukianenko, the press secretary of Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, neither confirmed nor denied the information in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. According to him, talks on a large loan for the completion of the Khmelnytsky NPP were held with Russia, but he said he had no information about the transfer of the funds at that moment.
The Ukrainian Finance Ministry’s press service was also unable to either confirm or refute the information.
Russia’s Finance Ministry in turn said that the loan had not provided at the state level. The ministry said that Russian banks could have issued the loan to Ukraine, yet it did not elaborate on that.
