Reuters quoted Eric LeCompte on Ukraine's debt burden. 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.
U.S. President Joe Biden could also issue an executive order deferring debt payments to private creditors located in the United States, he said, citing a similar move made by former President George W. Bush during the Iraq war in 2004-2005.
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.