Ukraine May Be Heading For A Currency Crisis

Ukraine's debt insurance costs jumped and currency traders increased bets on a devaluation after 350,000 people protested on Sunday against Yanukovich's decision to ditch a trade pact with the European Union.

Central bank Governor Ihor Sorkin backed up foreign exchange intervention by vowing to do everything needed to uphold financial stability. In an online video message, he urged savers "to be confident in the banking system" and not to withdraw their deposits.

Yet even though the protest was the largest since the Orange revolution that overturned Yanukovich's election victory in 2004, analysts stopped short of predicting wholesale upheaval.

"I'm trying to work out when a country has ever provoked a revolution over a trade deal," said Charles Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital in London.