A few years ago, the dependence of the Ukrainian economy on that of its northern neighbor was so strong that a sanctions strike against Russia would ricochet violently over Ukraine. However, despite the fact that the hryvnia today saw no damage from the ruble plunge, a new package of Russia sanctions could still affect certain Ukrainian companies. Several days following the introduction of the latest set of anti-Russian sanctions, the country’s oligarchs lost more than $16 billion due to the drop of their companies’ shares at stock exchange. The Russian ruble on April 11 continued its descent, reaching a mark of RUB 08 to the euro, which is a peak point since March 2016. At the same time, the hryvnia, contrary to popular opinion on Ukraine’s continuing economic dependence on Russia, just keeps strengthening. It’s actually almost surprising as we recall how the hryvnia earlier used to go down following any fall of the ruble. According to a Ukrainian economist Vitaly Shapran, today we can already claim Ukraine’s “indifference,” or neutrality, in relation to the situation in Russia. “We are not just independent of the ruble, we have quite good reasons to say that we are seeing opposite trends,” Shapran said. The economist explains this by the fact that earlier almost a third of Ukraine’s exports went to Russia, while now the share barely reaches 10%. Besides, there is no significant impact on our exports on the part of Russia, and there are no other financial channels of influence on their part (loans, for example). “Their behavior, aimed at pushing Ukraine out of Russian domestic markets has made its point. We have reoriented our exports to Asia and EU,” Shapran adds.
Turkish president to attend meeting with Ukraine
Turkey's president will attend the eighth meeting of a high-level strategic council with Ukraine in its capital Kiev. The Turkish...
