Ben Aris in Berlin
Fri, 19th Sep -- After gaining 135% in 2007, Ukraine was the world's best performing equity market. After the PFTS index lost 58.8% since the start of this year, it is now the worst hit of all emerging markets, giving up all last year's gains and most of those from 2006 too.

Nicholas Watson in Prague
Fri, 19th Sep -- On September 3, Ukraine was valiantly insisting that its plans to issue a sovereign Eurobond before the end of the year would go ahead. But with the country's existing bonds dropping to a four-year low that day as the country's political crisis deepened and little in the way of good news predicted ahead, many believe Ukraine will have a tough time selling any new debt, either at home or abroad.

Vitaliy Vavryshchuk of Dragon Capital
Fri, 19th Sep -- Following years of buoyant growth, Ukrainian banks have recently found themselves operating in much tougher market conditions after the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) switched to a restrictive monetary policy. Over the last three years, Ukrainian banks have enjoyed strong inflows of funding, with NBU foreign exchange interventions being the key hryvnia supply channel for the sector.

Agshin Mirzazade of Foyil Securities
Fri, 19th Sep -- Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has steadily evolved to become an integral part of the global economy. Together with its vast consuming capacity, which spurs growth of goods imports and foreign direct investment, Ukraine's key role in the global trade in steel, chemicals and agricultural products binds the country more strongly to global economic trends.

Graham Stack in Moscow
Fri, 19th Sep -- In his first policy speech as a presidential candidate back in February, Dmitry Medvedev called on Russian companies to expand abroad via foreign acquisitions. Russia's leading banks have followed the president's orders to the letter.