Looking at next month’s presidential election, veteran Ukraine analyst Timothy Ash warns that returning Privatbank to its former owner, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, would be a “deal breaker” with the IMF

Looking at next month’s presidential election, veteran Ukraine analyst Timothy Ash warns that returning Privatbank to its former owner, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, would be a “deal breaker” with the IMF. Volodymyr Zelensky, leader in opinion polls, has had his comedy show on Kolomoyskyi’s 1+1 TV channel for over a decade. Yulia Tymoshenko, runnerup for second place, is rumored to also receive Kolomoyskyi funding. “There is concern that Tymoshenko and Zelensky are backed by Kolomoyskyi, and the price for that will be the return of Privatbank to former owners and then higher level personnel changes at the NBU,” Ash writes, referring to the central bank. “Returning Privatbank to its owners, after a cost of over 5% of GDP to the state in bailout costs… will be an anathema to the official creditors.”