KIEV, July 27 - On July 24 the Ukrainian government made a $120 million interest payment on the sovereign's 2012 eurobonds, however a credit-negative debt payment moratorium remains an imminent risk, said Moody's Investors Service.

"The bond is one of several debt issuances at the center of the government's negotiations with existing sovereign bondholders to obtain $15.3 billion of debt relief. Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko had threatened to impose a moratorium on these bonds if creditors had not agreed to a restructuring that included a haircut on the bonds' principal - the main sticking point in the restructuring discussions - by the time of the next payment. Even though the government has not yet reached an agreement, we believe the sovereign paid the coupon because it judged that the negotiations had made enough progress such that it did not want to antagonize creditors and jeopardize the negotiations. We expect that the government will make a $60 million interest payment on its 2011 eurobonds by an August 23 deadline for the same reason," according to the rating agency.