Ukraine's central bank has spent the last year trying to keep the country's economy afloat. The Global News reported that Ukraine pegged the hryvnia at 36.57 to the dollar, adding that they have been active on the foreign exchange market to keep the currency as healthy as possible.
Additionally, Ukraine's struggling economy has been injected with billions of dollars from its Western allies, including Canada and the United States. Ukraine's currency reserves have soared to almost $30 billion, which nearly matches its reserves at the beginning of the war.
“To mark the anniversary of the war, we decided to launch a commemorative banknote which will depict on a small piece of paper a year of emotions, patterns, content and iconic things,” Andriy Pyshnyi, governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, stated during a presentation at the central bank in Kyiv.
Pyshnyi also said that the new note comes with innovative security features, and it will have a total circulation of 300,000. The new note reportedly took eight months to design and produce.
“During this year, Ukrainians have realized their force, their significance, their ability not only to withstand but also to win, to win without forgiving a single military crime, a single ruined house,” Pyshnyi said. “This victory will be at a very high price but it will happen and it will be ours.”
The opposite side of the 20-hryvnia ($0.54) depicts two hands secured with tape, appearing to allude to war crimes perpetrated by Russia. Moscow has denied all allegations of war crimes, though the US has stated that war crimes have been committed.
In late February, Ukraine imposed sanctions on all Russian financial institutions that would span 50 years. These sanctions not only apply to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, but also to "non-bank credit insitutions, payment systems, operators, professional stock market participants, insurance companies, investment funds and other insititutions providing financial services."
