Ukraine promised on Friday to make the next payment on a disputed Russian loan it had threatened to stop servicing due to Moscow’s rejection of more lenient terms.

Ukraine promised on Friday to make the next payment on a disputed Russian loan it had threatened to stop servicing due to Moscow's rejection of more lenient terms.

The decision should help ease some of the tensions building between the two neighbors throughout Ukraine's 14-month separatist revolt that Kiev accuses Moscow of staging, a charge Russia denies.

But the Western-backed Kiev leadership also warned its various lenders that it may stop making interest payments should they fail to accept painful debt restructuring terms within a matter of weeks.

"Two days ago, we paid $39 million (34 million euros) for (US-held) Eurobonds, and we will also pay $75 million to cover the so-called Russian bonds," Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko told reporters.

Her office quickly stressed in a separate statement that a faster-than-feared economic implosion left Kiev with no alternative but to freeze its payments "unless a negotiated solution is found in the weeks to come."

Ukraine is working hard to find a way to plug a $15.3-billion budget hole over the coming four years. Moscow refused to negotiate and still expects the bond's principal returned when it matures by year-end.

Russia had warned it would ask the International Court of Justice in The Hague to declare Ukraine in default if it failed to make a scheduled $75-million interest payment on Saturday.

Jaresko said the money would be delivered on Monday because banks remained closed over the weekend.

The coupon covers a $3-billion Eurobond that Moscow purchased from Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych's government in the wake of his December 2013 decision to ditch a landmark EU alliance and preserve closer ties with Russia.