KIEV (Reuters) - Debt restructuring talks between Ukraine's Finance Minister and a group of its largest creditors did not take place as planned on July 22 as technical aspects needed to be discussed, a source with knowledge of the negotiations said on Thursday.
Negotiations to restructure $23 billion (£14.8 billion) of debt have dragged on for over four months due to disagreement over the necessity of a writedown on the principal of the bonds.
Talks last week, which included Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko for the first time, showed signs of progress, raising hopes of an imminent deal, but further negotiations at this level slated for Wednesday were called off.
"There was a decision to postpone the principal-to-principal talks and to continue talks between advisers for the time being around technical issues," the source said.
The source did not say when high-level talks would resume or what technical details were being discussed.
Bonds mostly weakened on Thursday after rising a day earlier. The 2017 and 2022 issues were trading about half a cent lower.
The Finance Ministry has warned it may halt debt payments if a settlement is not reached over the summer. Ukraine is due to make a coupon payment of $120 million on Friday and faces a $500 million maturity in September.