03/01/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Ukraine is organizing transport corridors on the border with occupied territories of Donbass

03/01/2015 Daily Highlights by "Digests and Analytics - Ukraine" News Agency

Topics of the day

Ukraine is organizing transport corridors on the border with occupied territories of Donbass. Militant activity not decreasing in the combat zone. Preparations for the meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany to resolve the crisis in Eastern Ukraine are under way.

Key Events In Ukraine

• TV channel "Inter" officials reported that the group of masked men attacked their office and smashed the windows. Some of the attackers were detained by police. A criminal case is opened.
• National Council for Radio and Television along with the Security Service and the National Security Council  will investigate the broadcasting of Russian artists who supported the annexation of the Crimea on the New Year Eve.
• Looters plundered dozens of cars abandoned on the Odessa-Ilyichevsk highway due to the snowdrifts

Kiev

• Emergency Service urges residents of Kiev to be vigilant and prepared for terrorist attacks. Citizens must know what to do when explosive devices will be detected.

War in Ukraine

• The militants continue to keep positions of Ukrainian army under fire using guns, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery along all the line of contact. Frequent shelling recorded in places of possible attack -  in Novoaydarsk area, Schastya in Lugansk region, in Donetsk Airport, Peski, near Debaltseve, Mariupol and in Telmanovo district of Donetsk region.
• Seven transport corridors will be opened along front line in the war zone for comprehensive anti-terrorism measures at the request of the Secretary of the NSDC Turchynov while traffic on all other roads will be blocked. Corridors will be closed in case if fire will be opened in the 30-kilometer area around them. The adequate response  will be given to militants attacks on Ukrainian position.
• The period of adaptation of occupied Crimea to the Russian legislation has expired on January, 1.
• Crimean state employees were sent on vacation without pay until January 13 for the period of public holidays in Russia.
• Russia is preparing next “convoy” for invasion of the Ukrainian territory on January 8.
• Several hundred of wounded Ukrainian serviceman who were taken out to the territory of Russia are kept in jails according to the Russian human rights activist Vasilyeva. Formally they can not be considered as POWs.

Ukraine and the World

• According to the Russian news agency TASS, a meeting of leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany aimed to resolve the crisis in the Donbass will be held on January, 5 in Berlin. Following meeting of the Foreign Ministers will  be held after the 7th January.
• German Foreign Minister Steinmeier said that in 2015 a situation may arise in which the conflict in the Donbass will come to the end by itself due to the need to solve internal financial problems in Russia and Ukraine. He insists that only the Minsk agreements must  be the basis for a peaceful settlement.
• Economic efficiency of French President Hollande pre-election promise to rise maximum tax on income over €1 million at a rate of 75%  was miserable The tax will be canceled on February 2015.

Trends

• Refusal to vote for the draft budget by "Batkivschina" party fraction may be a signal of the instability in the Ukrainian parliamentary coalition.