From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Ukraine’s central bank has imposed a temporary ban on purchases of foreign currencies by authorized banks on behalf of their customers.
The ban, which is in effect from February 25 to February 27, is the latest move by Ukraine’s National Bank aimed at supported the troubled hryvnya currency.
The central bank also increased the waiting time from three to four business days for the purchase of foreign currency through deposits in special accounts, or for making advance payments on imports worth more than $50,000.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk criticized the move, saying it was made without consultation with the government and would not bring stability to the hryvnya.
Yatsenyuk also called on parliament to convene urgently to debate how to stabilize Ukraine’s financial system.
Ukraine’s conflict has hit the economy hard, with the hryvnya losing about 70 percent of its value on foreign exchange markets during the past year.
On February 23, with the hryvnya trading about 9 percent lower that its level the previous week, the central bank capped payments in foreign currencies at $500,000 without letters of credit from foreign banks.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking at a meeting with the visiting leader of the French Senate, via Reuters:
"A lot now depends on an honest, objective, unbiased approach by the observers who must record what is happening on the ground, so that we can all resist the attempts to present the Minsk agreements as having already failed. There are many people outside Ukraine and in Kyiv who want them derailed."
Today's map from Ukrainian military authorities:
Our Ukrainian Service will be live-streaming a march in the capital, Kyiv, by the nationalist Right Sector group.
Our Ukrainian Service reports on the ceremony in which more than 5,000 Ukrainian troops completed basic training at a military firing range near the western city of Lviv on Tuesday. The average age of the recruits, some of whom are volunteers while others have been mobilized, is 40. They will be sent for further training before eventually being deployed to the conflict zone.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius speaking to France Info radio, in Paris, today.
"We've told the Russians clearly that if there was an attack by separatists in the direction of Mariupol, things would be drastically altered, including in terms of sanctions."
"I very clearly tell my Russian colleague, Mr. [Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov, it would mean that at a European level the question of sanctions would be asked again."
In today's Daily Vertical, Brian Whitmore wonders what the West can do, faced with an unreliable negotiating partner like Vladimir Putin. And if it adopts more drastic countermeasures to Moscow's meddling in Ukraine, will they have any effect?
