Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko said in a German newspaper interview that Kiev's foreign lenders should agree to a debt restructuring for the sake of German taxpayers.
"The German taxpayers who are financially supporting us via national assistance loans and via the EU have a right for private creditors to share the costs by means of a debt restructuring," she said in an advance extract of an interview due to be published in Handelsblatt on Monday.
Negotiations between Ukraine and its foreign lenders have turned sour as a group of the country's largest bondholders rejects any writedown of the principal owed, while Kiev accused creditors of being unwilling to negotiate in good faith.
On Friday Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said foreign creditors must agree to the "legitimate" deal offered by Ukraine in talks on restructuring some $23 billion worth of its debt.
Kiev is fighting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and Yatseniuk said the country had "lost 20 percent of our economy".
In the interview, Yaresko said the negotiations were "very difficult" and "more complicated than previously thought".
She sought to raise pressure on Ukraine's creditors to come to an agreement with Kiev quickly by saying there was not much time left. She ruled out a failure of the talks, saying: "National bankruptcy is not an option."
The International Monetary Fund says it wants an agreement in place before it concludes its latest review of Ukraine's $17.5 billion bailout programme, which is slated to go to the IMF board in June. A second tranche of about $2.5 billion hinges on the outcome of the IMF review.
Yaresko rejected comparisons with cash-strapped Greece, saying Kiev was implementing reforms quickly and resolutely because "we know that there are no alternatives to really radical reforms and to Europe."
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