With a $17.5 billion agreement from the International Monetary Fund in hand, Russian gas company Gazprom said Thursday it was time Ukraine settled its debt. “The economic reform program focuses on immediate macroeconomic stabilization as well as broad and deep structural reforms to provide the basis for strong and sustainable economic growth over the medium term,” IMF Mission Chief for Ukraine Nikolay Gueorguiev said in a statement. Political upheaval that followed Kiev’s pivot toward the European Union in November 2013 left an already-battered Ukrainian economy in shambles. The IMF said Ukraine’s economy contracted by about 7 percent in gross domestic product last year as conflict drags on in the east of the country. This, in turn, has taken its toll on industries and […]