MOSCOW, November 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's largest steelmaker Evraz Group, controlled by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, said on Thursday it had received a $1 billion loan from national development bank VEB to refinance its foreign debts.

"Vnesheconombank has approved credit lines to refinance Evraz's foreign liabilities under syndicated loans of $1 billion and $800 million," the steelmaker said in a statement.

The first tranche of over $201 million has already been used to repay the company's short-term debt, the statement said.

The Russian business paper Vedomosti earlier said that Evraz Group needed the funds to repay part of a loan obtained in the spring by the steelmaker to purchase Ipsco, a leading steel supplier in Canada and the United States.

According to Vedomosti, Evraz Group's debt totaled about $10.24 billion as of late September, of which short-term liabilities stood at $4.14 billion.