Tuesday's interbank trading started at 29.05/29.07 UAH/$1, and within minutes the hryvnia weakened to 29.10/29.12 UAH/$1. However, the National Bank came to the market with interventions and helped hryvnia to get stronger to around 29 UAH/$1.

According to one of the market participants, at the opening of the day the volume of trading was significantly higher than usual, which is obviously due not only to yesterday's holiday in the US.

The hryvnia weakened to 28.60 UAH/$1 from 28.38 UAH/$1 on Friday. In the middle of the day the National Bank by means of interventions stabilized the rate at about UAH 28.47/USD1, but at the end of the day another portion of negative news lowered it to UAH 28.61/USD1.

On Wednesday, February 23, the Ministry of Finance is to pay out over UAH 17 bln on redemption of previously issued OVDPs.

In the cash market, the hryvnia also weakened on Tuesday morning, to about UAH 28.8/$1 to buy and UAH 29.2/$1 to sell.

The hryvnia has once before approached the level of 29 hryvnia/$1 - at the end of January, but failed to break through it, and two weeks later the hryvnia was already more expensive than UAH 28/$1.

The last time the official hryvnia exchange rate dropped below 29 UAH/$1 (to 30.01 UAH/$1) for one day was in late February 2015, the month when the Minsk agreements were signed.