Ukraine has joined the growing list of Eastern European countries who have now entered some form of “consultation” process with the IMF and today formally requested “systemic support” and “active cooperation” from the fund. The government will meet with IMF representatives in the “coming days,” according to a statement from First Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov. He declined to give further details about Ukraine’s request.

“Now, the IMF is coming and the Finance Ministry is starting to work with them actively,” Turchynov said. The IMF will meet the Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko “to discuss the financial system’s stability.”

Contracts on Ukraine’s debt were today being traded at 1,500 basis points,as compared with 440 on Russia and 337.5 on Hungary, according to CMA Datavision in London.

Even as late as yesterday central bank Governor Volodymyr Stelmakh had been saying IMF help wasn’t needed. The banking system is “normal and reliable,” he said in an interview.

All the relevant background and analysis to this situation can be found in this post which I put up on Sunday.