06/02/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights -The meeting of the contact group in Minsk on the settlement in Donbass was unsuccessful

The contact group in Minsk on the settlement in Donbass (Pthto BelTA)

06.02.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• The meeting of the contact group  in Minsk on the settlement in Donbass was unsuccessful.
• FIFA President Blatter resigned.
• Former President Yanukomvich and his son appealed against the EU sanctions.
• The head of the NBU said that the IMF insists on maintaining the restrictions in the foreign exchange market.

Key Events in Ukraine

• Verkhovna Rada amended the law on the defense planning, which determines types and principles of planning, taking into account the demographic, financial and economic resources; gives assessment of readiness for defense; sets state policy objectives in defense.
  MPs approved the amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes providing for adjudication by the courts in respect of investigation regarding judges outside the territory of their residence.
  Local community budgets can be used to repair the national highways, since according to the law on decentralization, local budgets receive additional funds from the fuel tax and other taxes.
  The list and the procedure for approval of the documentation for land management, as well as a list of organizations involved in its coordination, were unified by the Parliament.
• Ministry of Economic Development abolished the mandatory certification of new vehicles to meet the requirements of the Geneva agreement, ratified by the Verkhovna Rada in 2000.
• Compulsory certification of petrol was abolished, excluding fuel, which is not covered by the new rules, adapted to the EU standards.
• Ukraine reduced the imports of natural gas in May by half compared to May last year. The volumes of imports from Russia and Slovakia are about the same.
• The cost of electricity for industrial consumers increased by 4% on 1 June.
• “Energoatom” received a credit from the European Atomic Energy Agency in the amount of $ 600 million for the implementation of a comprehensive program to improve the safety of the NPP units.
• Vilnogirsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant for the extraction of titanium ore, which was leased to commercial structure, owned by oligarch Firtash, was returned to the state property .
• The State Treasury announced that single account accumulated USD 27.7 billion, which is three times more than last year's result.
• The head of the NBU Gontareva said that the IMF is against the increasing of the limit on the purchase of foreign currency by individuals and demands to keep most of restrictions in the foreign exchange market. Over the last three months the NBU bought about $ 700 million, "Naftogaz" bought another $ 400. The National Bank is closely monitoring the core inflation and is ready to reduce the current accounting rate of 30% upon the receipt of the positive statistics.
• The Ministry of Finance confirmed the receipt of $ 1 billion, obtained due to the issuance of bonds under the US loan guarantees.
• UkrSibbank decided to stop participating in the Fitch rating, according to which it has now the pre-default level - "SSS".
• The official hryvnia exchange rate remains stable: 21.07 UAH/USD (-0.02 USD) 23.24 UAH/EUR (+0,11 UAH), 3.94 UAH/RUB 10 (-0.04 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• During the day the fighting took place in the surroundings of Donetsk, in particular near the Donetsk airport. Schastya, Kirove, Stanitsa Luhanska were also under shellings. Border guards repelled the militants attacks  at the checkpoints "Mayorsk" and "Zolote". There are no losses or injured among soldiers and civilians. According to official data, during the previous day no Ukrainian soldiers were killed, eight soldiers were wounded.”
• “The head of the "Poroshenko Blok" faction in the Verkhovna Rada Lutsenko stated that because of the reluctance of militants to follow the Minsk agreement and respect the ceasefire regime the President decided to impose a blockade on the occupied regions of Donbass, which implies a ban on deliveries of products and consumer goods.
• The militants declared that they would not pay the salaries to the “Krasnyi Luch” miners due to the lack of funds. From militants controlled areas there were recived the reports that militants dismantle the equipment of enterprises and mines for scrap. Termination of the mines operation will inevitably lead to flooding of large areas, including the settlements. The OSCE Mission reported about the increase in the coal volumes delivered from the Lugansk region to Russia.

Ukraine and the World

• The consecutive meeting of the contact group in Minsk ended without positive results, the Russian delegation left the meeting. The participants called them "hard". Despite this, the OSCE Representative Tagliavini said that some  progress was achieved in the negotiations and a new date of the contact group and its subgroups meeting was appointed .
• Deputy Minister of Justice Sevostyanova said that Ukraine will demand the arrest of Russian assets abroad as collateral for the losses incurred due to the occupation of the Crimea. A spokesman for the Russian President Peskov responded that Russia would protect its property, without going beyond the legal field.
• According to Russian Brookings Institution expert Shevtsova, Russian offensive in the Donbass is unfeasible before the EU summit, where the lifting of sanctions will be considered .
• According to Senator Portman, inertness of President Obama to provide the defensive weapons to Ukraine leads to the expansion of the conflict in the Donbass.
• Malayia Airlines, whose plane was shot down by militants over the Donbass, declared technical bankruptcy and is preparing to conduct reorganizing and re-branding.
• Foreign Minister Klimkin expects from the G7 summit an unanimous support of Ukraine, including the support in implementation of the reforms. According to him, the Minsk Agreement can be considered fulfilled after the return of the control over the state border to Ukraine.
• Former Ukrainian President Yanukovych and his son appealed to the court regarding the sanctions imposed against them by the EU .
• The EU representaives called the "black list" of European politicians, adopted by Russia, absolutely groundless. EP President Schulz told Russian Ambassador to the EU that he and another Russian diplomat, as well as deputies of the State Duma and the Federation Council are denied the access to the European Parliament. Parliamentary cooperation in the framework of the Russia - EU committee is also suspended.
• FIFA President Blatter is to resign. Before the election, probably in late 2015, an extraordinary congress of the federation will be called. His resignation is connected with the investigation of the US authorities as part of the corruption in FIFA case and could lead to revision of the elections for the World Championships venue results according to which Russia and Qatar won. England demands to deprive Russia of the right to host the World Cup in 2018.
• Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Belotserkovsky said that despite the fact that his country supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, it would not join the sanctions against Russia.

=