Ukraine has today, Friday, 27 May 2016, filed with the English High Court of Justice its Defence to the claim brought against it in February 2016 by The Law Debenture Trust Corporation PLC, acting as the Trustee named in the instrument governing a $ 3 billion loan by the Russian Federation to Ukraine negotiated by the government of former President Yanukovych in December 2013 with the Russian Federation.

Ukraine’s Defence explains that the loan agreement is invalid and unenforceable for multiple reasons, including that, as a matter of Ukrainian law, Ukraine lacked the capacity to enter an agreement that violated the borrowing limits then in place and that the agreement was procured through duress exerted by Russia on Ukraine throughout 2013 in order to prevent Ukraine from signing an Association Agreement with the EU.

Ukraine intends to defend this action vigorously as part of a broader legal strategy designed to hold Russia to account for its aggression and other unlawful conduct against Ukraine, including the unlawful occupation of the Crimean peninsula.