The head of Ukraine’s state postal operator Ukrposhta has dismissed warnings from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) that the company faces a threat of default and requires budget support, insisting that the business is financially stable, reported Interfax-Ukraine.

CEO Igor Smelyansky said on Telegram that Ukrposhta did not need additional state capitalisation and was operating steadily, despite the central bank identifying it as one of four major risks to Ukraine’s financial system.

“The source of the ‘default’ is a letter from the NBU signed by Governor Andriy Pyshnyy, which states such an assessment and allegedly additional capitalisation of Ukrposhta is one of the four key risks,” Smelyansky wrote.

He said the company had reported EBITDA of more than UAH650mn ($15.7mn) in 2024 and that its capital exceeded UAH4bn as of June 1, 2025, but later turned negative due to a methodological change in the NBU’s reporting requirements.

“The loss arose due to exchange rate differences and depreciation linked to major investments in sorting automation... Unfortunately, the NBU has not adapted its legislation to the realities, and Ukrposhta and the pawnshop are regulated in the same way, which is why such questions arise,” Smelyansky said.

He stressed that the draft state budget for 2026 contains no provision for recapitalising Ukrposhta, and forecasts that the postal service will remain profitable between 2025 and 2028.

The NBU, however, has urged the government to consider handing over the licence of the nationalised First Investment Bank (PIN Bank) to another institution instead of Ukrposhta “to avoid further accumulation of risks and capital depletion.”

In its budget materials, the government projected Ukrposhta to stay in the black over the coming years under its baseline scenario. But the NBU said the company’s financial position was critical and estimated that as of end-May 2025 it needed at least 826mn hryvnias in recapitalisation.