Europe Politics

Ukraine Raises $270 Million From Sale of War Bonds to Fund Army as Russia's Invasion Continues

Wolfgang Schwan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
  • "The proceeds from the bonds will be used to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to ensure the uninterrupted provision of the state's financial needs under the war," the ministry tweeted.
  • The country's finance ministry said in a tweet on Tuesday that the bonds will have a yield of 11%, with a tenure of one year.
  • Ukraine has also been raising funds through other ways.

Ukraine's government issued war bonds on Tuesday and said it has raise about 8.14 billion Ukrainian hryvnia ($270 million).

The country's finance ministry said in a tweet the bonds will have a yield of 11% with a tenure of one year.

"The proceeds from the bonds will be used to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to ensure the uninterrupted provision of the state's financial needs under the war," the ministry tweeted a day earlier. Its website is currently down.

The nominal value per bond is 1,000 hryvnia ($33).

The government also put up bonds with a tenure of two months and a 10% yield. That raised another $7 million.

The bond sale was carried out through dealers including Citigroup, Austria's Raiffeisen Bank and Budapest-based OTP Bank Nyrt, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a call between an Ukrainian official and investors.

CNBC has reached out to the banks for comment.

Ukraine's armed forces have largely held off Russian troops since the invasion began last week. The smaller country has so far defended and retained control of key cities, while slowing Russia's advance on capital Kyiv.

While Ukraine's resilience has surprised analysts, many still expect Russia to prevail given Moscow's vast military resources. In 2020, Ukraine's military spending totaled $5.92 billion, a fraction of Russia's $61.71 billion spent, according to World Bank data.

Ukraine has sought to raise funds through multiple avenues as fighting continues and a Russian convoy heads toward Kyiv.

The official Twitter account of the Ukrainian government on Saturday posted addresses for two crypto wallets, one accepting only bitcoin and the other taking ether and tether, a token that tracks the value of the U.S. dollar.

As of Sunday, those wallets have attracted $10.2 million worth of crypto, according to research from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. That's on top of the millions in digital currency donated to nongovernmental organizations supporting the Ukrainian military.

— CNBC's Ryan Browne contributed to this report.

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