05/12/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Secretary of State Kerry held negotiations about Ukraine with Russian President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov in Sochi

Russian President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov

05.12.2015 Daily Highlights  by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from the Media and Social Networks

• The amendments to the martial law and the law on fight against terrorism were adopted
• Secretary of State Kerry held negotiations about Ukraine with Russian President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov in Sochi.
• The government approved a list of state-owned enterprises for privatization.
• Utilities debts of Ukrainians are growing sharply.

Key Events of Ukraine

• The Verkhovna Rada adopted a number of important laws. Amendments to the martial law were approved, they introduce the wider list of martial law measures and give their details, strengthen guarantees for the President’s and the government’s activities, specify the introduction and cancellation of such law.
  Amendments to the Law on the State Secrets, narrowing the number of persons admitted to them, were adopted. The law determines the number of personnel for special communication civil service.
  The law on the fight against terrorism was changed, it extends the right of operational management for anti-terrorrist operations. A law on military service in Ukraine for foreigners and stateless persons was approved in the first reading. Changes to the law on humanitarian aid should allow to reduce the control, registration and customs clearance time for such aid.
  The new version of the law on advertising limits the amount of television advertising - up to 15% of broadcasting time every hour.
  War duty will not be collected from the operations on the purchase and sale of foreign currency, since these operations are not considered income of individuals.
  MPs adopted an appeal to the Dutch Parliament on the returning to Ukraine of the museum treasures of the Crimea - the Scythian gold.
• The head of the "Poroshenko Blok" faction Lutsenko called to stop trading with the occupied territories of the Donbass.
• The Cabinet of Ministers approved a list of more than 300 state-owned enterprises to be privatized in 2015. Among them are the key objects of electric power and coal industries.
• "Ukrzaliznytsya" railway operator failed to timely satisfy obligations on previously issued loans and announced a technical default.
• "Kyivenergo" warns of possible electricity outages in the case of failure of industrial companies to reduce the energy consumption in the morning peak hours. Kiev administration initiated an audit of "Kyivenergo".
• In Ukraine, the IMF mission began the work on revising the program of increased funding. Quarterly reviews are foreseen by the agreement between Ukraine and the Fund.
• NBU slightly reduced the hryvnia exchange rate against the major currencies: 20.64 UAH/USD (+0.05 UAH), 23.19 UAH/EUR (+0,09 UAH), 4.05 UAH/10 RUR.

Ukraine at War

• Fighting in the Donbass continues. According to the official reports, during the fighting  three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and one was wounded. By the end of the day the situation around Donetsk and Stanitsa Luganska deteriorated, there were fights with the use of heavy artillery and armored vehicles.
• There was a terrorist attack on the railway in Odessa. Security Service of Ukraine reported that another terrorist attack on the natural gas pipeline was prevented.
• The head of civil-military Luhansk regional administration Moskal prevented the trucks with products from breaking through to the occupied territories and offers to ban the motor service with the areas controlled by the militants.

Ukraine and the World

• In Sochi, the talks of the US Secretary of State Kerry and Russian President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov took place. Kerry demanded a cease-fire from pro-Russian militants and warned the Russian leadership that the mitigation of sanctions is possible only after the full implementation of the Minsk Agreement. At the same time, he warned President Poroshenko against the conflict escalation.
  The Russian authorities acknowledged that the negotiations, during which the possibility of a personal meeting between the Presidents of Russia and the United States had not been discussed, had no significant results.
  After the meeting, the telephone talks between Kerry and Poroshenko on the implementation of the Minsk agreements were held.
• Gazprom officially launched the construction of the "Turkish stream" pipeline.

The Trends

• Experts believe that the West is trying to prevent the escalation of the conflict in the Donbass, of which the US ambassador to Ukraine and NATO leadership constantly warn. The goal of Putin’s Russia is to exclude Ukraine from the process of integration with the EU, so the risk of the further conflict in the Donbass remains extremely high.