I think I'm missing something fundamental here, but I somehow I have a sense that if Ukraine defaults, that would not be that much of a catastrophic event for Ukraine. To the best of my knowledge, if a country defaults, it does not mean the country goes out of business . All it means, that the debt would be restructured, the social programs (which aren't that many anyways) would be cut, the other government spending would be restricted (why is that a problem in a country like Ukraine where nobody pays taxes properly anyways?) Obviously, the savings of the financially responsible citizens would go down the drain, but when was it ever a factor? In return, though, Ukrainian government would be able to write off all the T-bills it sold to Russia (I'm not sure if anybody else had ever bought it) and, of course, all the hardship would be blamed on Russia. So, what am I missing here?