Ukraine raised 8.1 billion hryvnia ($277 million) in a sale of war bonds, its latest fundraising effort to tap into the global support for the country in its fight against Russia’s invasion.
The country also paid about $300 million of bond interest to international investors due Tuesday, honoring its financial commitments amid a devastating conflict. Yuriy Butsa, Ukraine’s debt chief, said that the government is looking at other fundraising options, including foreign currency issuance, and is in talks with the IMF and World Bank for emergency help.
“We had an investor call yesterday, and we see a lot of requests of how funds can support us,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We’re looking at ways to attract not only in local currency, but also in dollars, euros.”
The war bonds are one of a number of crowdfunding measures by Ukraine to raise money for both its armed forces and civilians as the country faces down a vastly bigger military force. The individual bonds yield 11% and had a par value of 1,000 hryvnia — about $33.
In the time of military aggression of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Finance offers citizens, businesses and foreign investors to support the budget of Ukraine by investing in military government bonds. pic.twitter.com/7P7AkxmTaD
— MinFin UA (@ua_minfin) February 28, 2022
Ukraine’s central bank set up a special account last week where people around the world can donate, and the government shared details of crypto addresses to raise funds in Bitcoin and other digital tokens.
By Tuesday morning, those accounts had received more than $17 million, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. Including NGOs providing support to the military, total donations amount to $24.6 million, it said.
Credit: BLOOMBERG