20/12/2014 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - President Poroshenko held an emergency meeting of the NSDC

20/12/2014 Daily Highlights from “Digests & Analytics Ukraine” News Agency

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President Poroshenko held an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. Russia continues to concentrate its troops near Ukrainian border.

Important Events In Ukraine

• President Poroshenko held a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council. He believes that 2015 will be very difficult for the country. A full-scale war with Russia may continue at any time. The threat of terrorist attacks has increased significantly.
  Ukraine's defense expenditures are planned at the amount of 86 billion UAH ($5 billion) for next year. Three more waves of partial mobilization will be introduced..Conscripts will be at least 20 years old and they will not be send to the zone of conflict. The strict admission regime will be set on the border with the Donets’k and Luhans’k “republics”.
  The next meeting of the National Security Council is scheduled on December 23.
• President Poroshenko discussed ceasefire settlement in the Donbass with German Chancellor Merkel.
• the decline in production in Ukraine in 2014 will be 7% in 2015 - 3% according to the rating agency S&P. Ukraine need to repay about $ 11billion of debt in 2015. This will require not only additional IMF financial assistance, but also the issue of Eurobonds under US guarantee.

War in Ukraine

• Militants occasionally opened fire on positions of Ukrainian troops in the conflict zone using firearms and grenade launchers, two shellings were recordered at the Donets’k airport, village Olkovatka near Artemivs’k have been shelled by "Grad" rocket launchers. At least two Ukrainian soldiers were injured.
• As a result of militants’ shelling in Gorolivka a child was killed, her mother was wounded. 44 children was killed since the beginning of the conflict according to the UN,.
• The Russian Federation continues to concentrate  troops and military equipment to the state border of Ukraine according to local activists,. The information about the withdrawal of troops is not true.
• Another "humanitarian convoy" of 180 trucks is preparing to invade the territory of Ukraine. Six trucks with the white and Russian flags broke on the territory of Ukraine today.
• US authorities supplied 35 off-road vehicles, communications equipment and uniforms worth $10 million to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine .
• Zaporizh’a Airport is still closed for security reasons until December, 23.

Ukraine and the World

• Kyrgyzstan has decided to delay its joining the Eurasian Economic Union due to the crisis in Russia.
• Russia will demand that France has to return the money paid for the two helicopter carriers of "Mistral" class, which were not given to Russia because of the EU sanctions against Russia.
• Payments for Belarus food export to Russia will be in US dollars.

Trends

• The government has disrupted the introduction of all laws necessary to adopt the Ukrainian budget for 2015 to the Parliament. Further develompent of the draft budget is performed by unprofessional deputies in the regime closed from the public without involving of profile experts. This assumes that corruption schemes would be included into the budget.
• Empowerment of the National Security and Defence Council is contrary to the Constitution. The draft law proposed makes the Council yet another state agency with the functions similar to the Cabinet’s one