The High Court of Justice in London accepted Kyiv’s position during hearings on $3bn Eurobonds held by Moscow, and granted a further suspension of its March ruling until Ukraine’s appeal has been concluded, which would not be before 2018, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry said in a statement on July 26.

The court also confirmed, “contrary to efforts by Russia” to impose onerous conditions upon Ukraine’s appeal rights, that unconditional permission has been given to Ukraine to appeal against the judgment to the court of appeal.

“Indeed, in his latest judgment Mr Justice Blair recognised that this was clearly a case where the threshold conditions for permission to appeal were satisfied, namely that the appeal had a real prospect of success,” the statement reads.

In late May, the court suspended its March ruling which rejected all of Ukraine’s arguments in a dispute with Russia over $3bn Eurobonds purchased by Moscow in 2013 and were not redeemed as due in December 2015.

In late March, the High Court in London ruled that it would not be right for a $3bn Eurobond case brought by Russia against Ukraine to go to full trial since Kyiv has no “justifiable defence” for its failure to redeem the notes in December 2015. At the same time, the Ukrainian government still sought a full trial on the grounds that Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 had economically impaired its ability to pay debts.

In 2015, private creditors voted in favour of Ukraine’s $15bn debt restructuring deal, while Russia refused any restructuring of the $3bn notes it bought from Ukraine. These were bought before the ousting of Ukraine’s ex-president Viktor Yanukovych in early 2014.

“The court also refused the trustee’s request for security for costs, and agreed with Ukraine’s position that the question of the reimbursement of the trustee’s costs of the proceedings must be subjected to detailed scrutiny by the court, which will not take place until after Ukraine’s appeal has been concluded,” the finance ministry in Kyiv added on July 26.