From our news desk on the debt:
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says his country won't repay a $3 billion debt owed to Russia by this weekend.
Yatsenyuk announced at a televised government session December 18 a "moratorium" on any debt repayments to Russia. He did not indicate when Ukraine would be ready to repay the debt.
That effectively means that Ukraine is defaulting on the debt. Moscow has previously said it will take Ukraine to court if it failed to pay on time.
Relations between the two neighbors soured after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in March 2014 and threw its backing behind separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian leaders have accused Moscow of sending troops and weapons to the east, a claim the Kremlin has denied.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
Ukrainska Pravda claims that the EU has decided to lift the visa regime with Ukraine. The announcement on whether or not Ukraine has fulfilled all the necessary requirements is to come today, but Ukrainska Pravda claims to have obtained parts of the document.
“Considering the relations between Ukraine and the EU, the European Commission will submit [to the EU Council] a legislative proposal to change the regulation 539/2001,” says Ukrainska Pravda, quoting the document.
Council Regulation 539/2001 lists countries whose citizens require and do not require visas to enter the European Union.
Crimean Tatar leaders Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov have met with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
According to Chubarov’s Facebook post, the meeting took place aboard a government plane during a flight between Konya and Ankara. There are no details about the purpose of the meeting.
Earlier, Crimean news agency QHA reported that Crimean Tatar leaders also met with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The article says they discussed Ukraine-Turkey relations, as well as the situation of Crimean Tatars in annexed Crimea.
Good piece by Tim Judah:
From the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine:
Ukraine to buy gas from French, British suppliers
Kiev, Dec 17, 2015 (AFP) -- Ukraine, which last month halted gas purchases from Russia, announced Thursday it would receive deliveries from two other European suppliers, paid for by a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
France's Engie and Britain's Noble Clean Fuels have won tenders to deliver gas to Ukraine in December and January, after they offered the lowest tariffs, in particular compared to Russian giant Gazprom, the Naftogaz state energy company said in a statement.
It said the deliveries will be paid for out of a $300 million (277 million euro) loan granted by the EBRD to cover the purchase of around one billion cubic metres of gas from Europe.
Naftogaz did not indicate how much gas the French and British companies would supply nor the price paid.
But a source at the EBRD said the two suppliers would deliver $49.2 million worth of gas to Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine -- locked in a bitter feud since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 -- have been involved in a festering gas pricing dispute that has seen supplies repeatedly cut off.
Moscow turned the taps back on in October under a deal that saw Kiev switch to a pre-payment system, meaning that cash-strapped Ukraine must stump up money in advance to cover Russian gas deliveries.
But Ukraine on November 25 again announced it had stopped buying gas from Russia.
The EBRD credit is part of a financing plan worth $1.0 billion which Kiev hopes to raise from various institutions in order to pay for gas supplies.
Some 15 percent of the gas used in Europe travels through Ukraine, and the EU has been involved in mediating the dispute between Kiev and Moscow.
Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Moscow of orchestrating and supporting the pro-Russian revolt in the east to avenge last year's ouster of Kiev's Kremlin-backed president and the new government's decision to align itself with the West.