04/17/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - US paratroopers arrived in Lviv

US paratroopers arrived in Lviv

04/17//2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from the Media and Social Networks

• US paratroopers arrived in Lviv.
• Demolition of monuments to Lenin in Donbas and Kharkov.
• Akhmetov still the richest man in Ukraine.
• OSCE sees "third power" in the Donbass.

Key Events in Ukraine

• The Cabinet has increased the powers of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, giving it the right to control national projects and state investment policy.
• The official rate of hryvnia against major currencies has grown slightly: 21.06 UAH/USD (-0.39 UAH), 22.77 UAH/EUR (-0,20 UAH), 4.17 UAH /10 RUR (-0,15 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• The situation in the conflict zone remains tense. The fighting took place in the Stanitsa Luganska, Schastya, Crymske, Peski, Avdiivka, Shirokine, and Gorlivka suburbs. OSCE observers stated that the shelling of Ukrainian position is conducted by "unknown third party."
• Intelligence service continues recording the transfer of large amounts of armor, artillery and ammunition in Ukraine in through uncontrolled border areas, as well as by railway. Militants carried out regrouping and are moving military equipment in the areas of probable attack.
• 290 paratroopers from the US arrived in Ukraine to train soldiers of the National Guard in the defense actions, combat coordination and individual training. Press Secretary of Russian President Putin said that the presence of US military trainers destabilize the situation in Ukraine.
• According to the UN more than six thousand people were killed and more than 15 thousand wounded during the conflict in the Donbass region.

Ukraine and the World

• Moscow court refused to release the Ukrainian pilot Savchenko, despite its status as a delegate to the PACE and prove her innocence submitted by her defence.
• The US State Department has detailed information on the participation of the Russian army in the conflict in the Donbass. President Obama said the United States will not lift sanctions against Russia until it will completely fulfill the Minsk Agreement and there will not be peace in the Donbass.

The Trends

• The military prosecutor Matios said that 459 Ukrainian servicemen were killed near Illovaisk in August-September 2014, 478 - injured. Some of the servicemen are unaccounted for and may be in captivity. Temporary Commission of Verkhovna Rada in October 2014 named Defense Minister Geletey and Chief of General Staff Muzhenko as the guilty in defeat, but the military prosecutor in the interview "112 Ukraine" declined to name the responsible, saying that "God will punish them."