Fitch cuts Ukraine's rating to 'Restricted Default'

(Reuters) - Fitch downgraded Ukraine's credit rating to "Restricted Default" from "C" on Tuesday, citing the expiry of the grace period for its 2026 Eurobond payment.

The war-torn country defaulted on its bonds following the invocation of a law permitting the suspension of foreign debt payments until Oct. 1.

Earlier this month, Ukraine began the process to gain bondholder approval to restructure $20 billion of international bonds.

Ukraine, following an invasion by Russia, has been resolutely pushing for wartime debt restructuring as part of its efforts to regain access to international capital markets.

Fitch maintained Ukraine's local-currency (LC) debt rating of "CCC-" over its expectation that LC debt will be excluded from a restructuring deal with external commercial creditors.

Ratings agency S&P Global had also cut Ukraine's rating to "selective" default on Aug 2.

Fitch usually does not assign outlooks to countries with a rating of "CCC+" or below.

(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi and Anil D'Silva)

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