KYIV, March 5 – The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) explained the reduction of Ukraine's foreign exchange (FX) reserves in February by 1%, to $28.54 billion by the repayment of external and internal public debt, the central bank said on Friday.

"FX inflows to the government amounted to $456.7 million came from a placement of domestic government debt securities (T-bills & bonds). At the same time, the government spent and equivalent of $633.9 million (in the equivalent) on servicing and repayment of FX public debt," the NBU said.