Poroshenko: Ukraine risks defaulting if PrivatBank returned to tycoon

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned that the country risks defaulting on its debt if its biggest lender, PrivatBank, is handed back to tycoon Igor Kolomoysky.

Overturning the decision would threaten “a default and a new economic crisis,” Poroshenko said in a televised address. "Therefore, the government and the National Bank are doing the right thing to challenge this decision," Reuters cited him as saying.

A Kiev court ruled yesterday that the Ukrainian government's decision in 2016 to nationalise PrivatBank was illegal. 

The Ukrainian central bank said it would appeal against the court ruling.