02/03/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights -Deputy of Verkhovna Rada Savchenko became a Hero of Ukraine

03/02/2015 Daily Highlights  by the "Digests & Analytics - Ukraine" News Agency

Topics of the Day

The Verkhovna Rada approved government's changes to the budget and pension laws. Deputy of Verkhovna Rada Savchenko became a Hero of Ukraine. Ukraine will not pay for Russian gas supplies to the rebels in Donbass.

Key Evetnts of Ukraine

• Verkhovna Rada deputies adopted the changes to the budget for 2015, introduced by the government (budget revenues rose by 22 billion UAH, spending by 35 billion UAH), and allowed restructuring of the state debt of Ukraine.
  Introduced changes in pension legislation would limit pensions of working retires and would gradually raise the retirement age for women. Military pensions for combatants will not be affected.
  The Parliament approved the allocation of targeted assistance in the amount of 250 UAH for children of up to 3 years old in low-income families.
• President Poroshenko introduced to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on increase of the Armed Forces strength for up to 250 thousand men.
• The head of the Supreme Council of Judges agreed on the arrest of three judges from Pechersk court requested by the General Prosecutor's Office. The judges are accused of delivering knowingly unjust rulings in politically-motivated cases.
• On March 1, the wholesale price of alcohol has increased by 1.5 fold - up to 265 UAH per deciliter, which would lead to an increase in the minimum retail price of a bottle of vodka to 55 UAH.
• The total public and publicly guaranteed debt of Ukraine in 2014 reached 71.5% of GDP, compared to 40.3% a year earlier. Nearly two-thirds of the debt represent currency borrowing. The National Bank claims that the hryvna devaluation and money deficit in the public sector are responsible for the debt growth.
• The NBU continues to strengthen the official hryvnia exchange rate: 26.86 UAH / USD (- 0.90 UAH), 30.19 UAH/ EUR (-1,23 UAH), 4.38 UAH / 10 RUR. (-0.19 UAH).

Urkaine at War

• Militants resumed railway connection through captured Debaltseve. The ATO stuff states that, based on the regions of concentration of Russian forces, Mariupol and Artemivsk are likely to become the next targets of militants’ offensive.
  The total number of attacks and shellings of Ukrainian positions decreased, but the  Ukrainian troops and volunteers continue to incur losses.
• The OSCE observers can not provide a reliable verification of heavy weapons withdrawal from the line of fighting in the Donetsk Basin on the terms established by the Minsk Agreement. The Ukrainian side claims that arms, removed by the Russian militants during the day under the supervision of the OSCE, are returned back to their original positions at night. Ukraine declared that there will be no complete withdrawal of heavy weapons until the rebels begin a true withdrawal of their heavy weapons.
• President Poroshenko awarded deputy Savchenko with the title of Hero of Ukraine. Savchenko continues a hunger strike in a Moscow prison, despite calls from the public about its termination; her health is rapidly deteriorating.

Ukraine and the World

• Based on the results of negotiations on gas deliveries the European Commission, the representatives of Ukraine and Russia agreed on the full implementation of the "winter package"  i.e. supplying Ukraine with up to 114 million m3 of gas per day on a prepaid basis through agreed points of supply and ensuring a reliable gas transit to the EU. Questions about deliveries of gas to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions controlled by the DNR and LNR militants remained unresolved and will be reviewed at the end of March.
• Following telephone converstations the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia supported the proposal by Poroshenko to place OSCE observers at all ceasefire points.
• The US President Obama said that the murder of an opposition politician Nemtsov is part of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
• The Russian authorities have allowed a Ukrainian female witness in Nemtsov’s murder case to go back home to Ukraine.
• The NATO Secretary General Rasmussen called a truce in Donbass to be very fragile.
  The US Secretary of State Kerry expects a full ceasefire in Donbass in the next day, otherwise the US are ready to impose new sanctions against Russia.

The Trends

• According to experts of CASE Ukraine, carrying out fundamental reforms during a war, as was the experience of Israel,  could quickly strengthen the economy of Ukraine and form the basis for victory in a war.