Pressure mounts on Ukraine’s currency as it denies payment to Russia

There seems to be no end to Russia -Ukraine tensions, be it military or economy. Ukraine has in recent events, denied power to Russian annexed Crimea and today Ukraine said it is ready to take Russia to legal procedures to tackle the ongoing debacle. It announced that it will not pay Russia $3 billion disputed bond.

In International Monetary Fund (IMF) led restructuring, all except Russia has accepted 20% restructuring write-down in debt. Total debt that faced restructuring was of $18 billion, which is part of $40 billion international assistance. Russia has argued, since Russia loan is from state to state, it can't be restructured or denied. IMF has also supported Russia's argument, however it changed its rule  - "IMF can't provide support to countries with debt in arrears" to provide support to Crimea.

Ukraine's Hryvnia, which was worst performing currency last year, is back under pressure again. Last year, it was down close to 50%.

It is up 1.8%, trading at 23.8 per Dollar.