KFGO News quotes Eric LeCompte on Ukraine's debt. Read the full article here. 

Ukraine tapped lion’s share of IMF reserve allocation, debt pressures building

By Andrea Shalal

The U.S. Treasury Department and the IMF could take several steps to ease Ukraine’s debt burden and avert a payments crisis, Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, told Reuters.

Treasury could seek congressional authorization to freeze the $2 million in service payments Ukraine owes the United States this year on its $790 million bilateral debt, he said.

Doing so, he said, would send a “strong signal of support for Ukraine beyond the really good things that the administration has already been doing”.

It would also ensure that private creditors don’t “use this moment to try and exploit Ukraine”, he said.

LeCompte said the fund could freeze debt service payments as it has for low-income countries during the pandemic, or extend the loan so payments wouldn’t be due for several years. Although Russia is a shareholder of the IMF, the United States and Europe hold more power and could push through such a decision, he said.