Ukraine's central bank decided to postpone a review of its main interest rate and keep it unchanged at 10.0% on Thursday in an effort to maintain financial stability and the smooth operation of the banking system amid the Russian invasion, Reuters reported. It said the bank remained committed to its inflation targeting regime but in the current conditions, with forced administrative restrictions in place, market-based monetary instruments such as the key policy rate no longer play a significant role. "With this in mind, the central bank has postponed its key policy rate decision.

Airlines world-wide are altering routes and canceling flights to avoid Russian airspace, changes that will lengthen journey times and raise costs for carriers that were starting to bounce back from their pandemic slump, the Wall Street Journal reported. With Russia banning many European airlines from its skies, flying around the giant country may add hundreds of miles and up to two hours to some flights, incurring higher fuel, labor and maintenance costs, according to airlines and analysts.

The Swiss-based company which built the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is considering filing for insolvency, two sources familiar with the situation said, as it attempts to settle claims ahead of a U.S. sanction deadline for other entities to stop dealings with it, Reuters reported. The United States sanctioned Nord Stream 2 AG last week after Russia recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine prior to its invasion of the country, which has prompted a wave of economic sanctions by the West.

The U.S. and European Union blocked Russia’s central bank from using its emergency reserves to protect the economy from the Western pressure campaign, a salvo the bank’s governor said risked triggering a financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. The coordinated action blocks the central bank from selling dollars, euros and other foreign currencies in its reserves stockpile to stabilize the ruble. Announcing the move Monday in Washington before U.S. markets opened, U.S.

The presidents of eight central and eastern European nations on Monday called on European Union member states to immediately grant Ukraine a EU candidate country status and open membership talks according to an open letter published on Monday, Reuters reported.

With Covid shutting off tourism from much of the West, Russia and Ukraine had become an increasingly important source of foreign currency for Sri Lanka. The conflict threatens to turn off that tap as key bond repayments come due, Bloomberg News reported. Almost a quarter of all tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka this year were from Russia and Ukraine -- rising to 30% if you include Poland and Belarus, official data show. Russia, which was the third-biggest buyer of Sri Lankan tea over the past two years, rose to second place in January.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Friday that more than $1 billion will be needed for aid operations in Ukraine over the next three months as hundreds of thousands of people are on the move after Russia invaded its neighbor, Reuters reported. "We're going to need to use cash for the delivery of assistance, and we're going to need to use that cash safely. We're looking obviously at the impact of sanctions on our operations," he told reporters. Read more.

European Central Bank policymakers are gathering on Thursday for what may have become a crisis meeting as Russia's invasion of Ukraine threatens to derail economic growth in the euro zone and complicate the ECB's path out of negative interest rates, Reuters reported. The ECB's "informal get-together" was aimed at preparing a decision on March 10 on the likely end of the ECB's bond-buying stimulus programme, paving the way for the first rate hike in more than a decade to tackle surprisingly high inflation.

The mission of the International Monetary Fund is starting its work in Ukraine for the second review of the Fund-supported programme, the global lender said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Ukraine hopes that the continuation of cooperation with the IMF can reassure markets that have been rattled by tensions with Russia and that the talks will result in disbursement of $700 million under its $5 billion IMF programme.

U.S. President Joe Biden unleashed sanctions targeting Russia’s sale of sovereign debt abroad and the country’s elites, responding to what he described as the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. “He’s setting up a rationale to take more territory by force,” Biden said Tuesday at the White House. “This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Biden said that he’s sending an unspecified number of additional U.S. troops to the Baltics in a defensive move to defend NATO countries.