14/02/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Prosecutor General's Office arrested a former head of parliamentary faction of the Party of Regions Alexander Efremov

14/02/2015 Daily Highlights by "Digests & Analytics - Ukraine" News Agency

Topics of the day

President Poroshenko announced a ceasefire in Donbass. Prosecutor General's Office arrested a former head of parliamentary faction of the Party of Regions Alexander Efremov.

Key Events of  Ukraine

• Investigators of the General Prosecutor's Office and the SBU detained a former head of the Party of Regions faction in the Verkhovna Rada Alexander Yefremov on suspicion of an abuse of power and an forgery on duty.
  New Attorney General Shokin changed the procedure for appointing regional prosecutors and their deputies; requirements for them noticeably tightened. Both Prosecutor of the Donetsk region and the head of the investigation department of the General Prosecutor's Office responsible for investigating crimes against the activists of the Maidan have been dismissed.
• Prime Minister Yatsenyuk predicts average annual hryvnia exchange rate at the level of 21 UAH/USD. The IMF mission considered realistic course of 22 UAH/USD during negotiations. The Government believes that inflation in 2015 will be at 26%.
  The Cabinet approved amendments to the budget required to implement the agreement with the IMF. They are planned to be adopted on February 25 at an extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada.
  Ukraine plans to create a reserve fund of natural gas and oil in the amount of $1 billion for the next heating season via obtaining a credit secured by state guarantees.
• Company "Ukrgazvydobuvannya" lost two extracting locations in Lugansk region due to hostilities. Gas production in 2015 will be reduced by 50-70 million cubic meters. Militant shelling damaged high pressure gas pipeline on February 14th.
  The memorandum signed by the Government of Ukraine and the IMF provides for a dramatic increase in tariffs for gas starting April 1st.

War in Ukraine

• During the day, the militants and the Russian military were attacking Ukrainian army positions along the whole line of fighting and also shelling villages with artillery and MLRS. Part of the Russian-terrorist forces tried to close the front line around Debaltseve and knock the Ukrainian forces from the vicinity of Mariupol, but they failed and they suffered heavy losses in manpower and equipment. The planned provocation of shelling Russian territory by militants failed.
  As a result of the shelling of Donetsk and Gorlovka, which militants performed in order to create conditions for the invasion of Russian "peacekeepers", several civilians were killed and dozens wounded.
• Live on TV, President Poroshenko ordered a ceasefire in the war zone in the Donbass, and called on the OSCE to start monitoring the implementation of Minsk agreements. He said he was willing to impose martial law if the militants do not respect the ceasefire. After the declaration of the ceafire, the gunmen broke the silence regime several times in the Luhansk region and in the Debaltsevske foothold.
• US Ambassador to Ukraine Paeyett showed satellite images, which prove that regular Russian army forces, equipped with the latest MLRS and air defenses, are fighting at the Debaltsevske foothold against the Ukrainian army.
• OSCE is ready to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy equipment and foreign armed groups from the Donbass.
• Russia is preparing an invasion of another "convoy" in the Donbass for February 15th.

Ukraine and the World

• Russia introduced a UN Security Council draft resolution, which will be discussed at an extraordinary meeting on February 15th. The document calls for the full implementation of the negotiated measures to stop the fire in the Donbas and approves the agreements reached in Minsk. According to the representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Yuri Sergeyev, the question of sending peacekeeping forces to Ukraine is not being discussed and can only be initiated by the government of the country where there is a conflict.
• The Government of Canada is preparing another package of financial assistance to Ukraine and is ready to provide real-time satellite position information on the location of militants to the Ukrainian army.
• G7 Countries threatened Russia with extension of sanctions for violation of the Minsk agreements and escalation of aggression in eastern Ukraine.
• US is returning to Europe their tank destroyers A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft. NATO airforce again intercepted Russian strategic bombers over the Atlantic and the Baltic Sea.

Trends

• Withdrawal of heavy weapons and artillery from combat areas will allow DNR and LNR rebels and the Russian troops to capture the demilitarized zone, as in the last days before the ceasefire Russia has moved across the border hundreds of armored vehicles, heavy long-range artillery and MLRS, air defense weapons, ammunition and additional troops.