KYIV, March 15 – JPMorgan Chase & Co. directly lent around $350 million to the government of Ukraine on March 12, 2019, two weeks before the first round of the presidential election in the cash-strapped country, WSJ has reported, referring to people familiar with the deal.

WSJ said that the bank, declared the only organizer of the additional issue of 10-year loan participation notes (LPNs) of Ukraine, bought them itself, which is not a common practice.