04/27/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - EU-Ukraine summit held

EC President Juncker, President  Poroshenko and Chairman of the Council of Europe Tusk

04/27/2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from the Media and Social Networks

• EU-Ukraine summit held.
• The hot water supply will be cut off in Kiev because of the Kyivenergo debts .
• Poroshenko promised to apply for membership in the EU in 5 years.
• Tension grew in the Donbass again, the militants are using heavy artillery and MLRS.

Key Events of Ukraine

• The EU-Ukraine summit took place in Kiev. There it was confirmed once again that a free trade zone between Ukraine and the EU will start working on 1 January 2016.
• State Statistics Service reported that, compared to March of the previous year, actual average salary in Ukraine in March 2015 decreased by a quarter, although in absolute terms it increased by 13% and amounted to UAH 3863 (less than $ 170) per month.
• Ministry of Agrarian Policy initiated a large-scale privatization of the state enterprises.
• "Naftogaz" started to cut off the natural gas supply to consumer with debts, the largest of which is "Kyivenergo", owned by the oligarch Akhmetov. This will lead to the cut-off of hot water supply for the people of Kiev.
• As of March 31, 2015 public and publicly guaranteed debt amounted to UAH 1.52 trillion, or $ 65 billion, it increased by $ 2.45 billion compared to February 2015. The balance of payments deficit as of March 2015 was $ 305 million, which is 2.5 times less than in February, but 1.5 times higher than in 2014.
• NBU continues to decrease the hryvnia exchange rate: 22.90 UAH/UAH (+0.45 UAH), 24.78 UAH/UAH (+0,48 UAH), 4.45 UAH/10 RUR (-0.02 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• The situation in the conflict zone in the Donbass is getting worse. Militants are shelling the Ukrainian army positions using heavy artillery and MLRS "Grad". Surroundings of Donetsk and Shyrokine are still remaining the fighting flashpoints. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and at least three soldiers were injured.

Ukraine and the World

• Russian President Putin appointed a new special representative of the contact group on resolution of the situation in Ukraine. This position got the former head of the diplomatic mission in Syria Kulmuhametov.
• The US Department of State claimed that Russia had deployed and moved to the forefront in the Donbass new air defense systems, heavy artillery systems and MLRS and it systematically violates the Minsk agreement.
• Turkish President Erdoğan said that before using the term "Armenian Genocide", the Russian president must explain their actions in Ukraine.
• NATO will increase the number of rapid reaction forces from 13 to 30 thousand soldiers due to the aggressive actions of Russia towards Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.

The Trends

• According to the head of the "Maidan of Foreign Affairs" Yaremenko, the results of EU-Ukraine summit demonstrate the crisis of the Ukrainian diplomacy, which can boast of no real successes. Application for EU membership can be submitted at any time, but to join the European Union it is necessary to implement real reforms and not just show the imitation of them. Besides, the actual refusal to deploy the EU and the UN peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone in the Donbass should be considered a real defeat, since these statements were made without consultations with the partners. Ukraine is unlikely to receive the visa regime cancellation at the EU Eastern Partnership Summit in May in Riga. Minsk Agreement is not being fulfilled, despite the Ukraine’s attempts to implement them unilaterally, but the West does not have any other proposals.