LONDON, April 19 – Ukraine will not default on its debt, the country’s finance minister said on Thursday, adding that the government would be able to meet all its funding obligations in a year of heavy external refinancing needs.

Ukraine must repay over $5.3 billion in external debt this year, including $3 billion to the International Monetary Fund but is effectively cut off from international capital markets as the IMF has frozen its aid tranche to the ex-Soviet state.