07/15/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights -President Poroshenko introduced to the Parliament the amendments to the Constitution, which record the special status of the Donbass

Poroshenko introduced to the Parliament the amendments to the Constitution, which record the special status of the Donbass

07.15.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• President Poroshenko introduced to the Parliament the amendments to the Constitution, which record the special status of the Donbass.
• Moskal was appointed a Head of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration .
• The General Staff considers the serving of summons in the street legal.

Key Events In Ukraine

• A presidential draft amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine on decentralization of power, mentioning the special status of the Donbass, appeared on the site of the Verkhovna Rada.
• President Poroshenko appointed the former Head of the Luhansk military-civilian administration Moskal a Head of Transcarpathian Regional State Administration. Moskal immediately announced about the dismissal of the local leadership of the SSU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the appointment of the new leadership. The Border Service will also be purged. The heads of all regional administrations of Transcarpathia resigned.
• The Verkhovna Rada voted for a bill authorizing the secret surveillance upon the law enforcement officials and judges, which should be carried out by the investigative bodies outside the territory where the investigation is conducted.
• The Verkhovna Rada Committee believes that the leadership of the General Prosecutor’s Office should resign.
• The Head of the NBU Gontareva stated at the meeting of the relevant parliamentary committee that the regulator is ready to lift the restrictions on the currency market immediately after the debt restructuring.
• The official hryvnia exchange rate began to decline: 22.10 UAH/USD (+0.11 UAH), 24.34 UAJ/EUR (+0,07 UAH), 3.90 UAH/RUR 10 (+0.04 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• The situation in the Donbass is escalating, the number of militants shellings with the use of heavy artillery and MLRS and attacks on the Ukrainian positions is increasing every day. The losses of the Ukrainian army are constantly growing. During the last day only officially Ukrainian army lost eight soldiers, 16 people were injured. The day before, as a result of landmine trap explosion, in the Luhansk region near the border with Russia five deminers were killed .
• The night shellings of the village near Artemivsk caused casualties among civilians. At night time, the residential areas of Donetsk are being shelled from the territories controlled by the militants.
• The SSU detained a terrorist during the mining of the railway lines at the Kharkov-passenger station . Across the country, the law enforcement officers keep detecting the drops of ammunition and neutralizing the subversive and terrorist groups.
• The General Staff claims that the serving of summons in the streets, in public transport and in other public places is legal, and the number of court decisions on the mobilization evading is too small to improve the situation.

Ukraine and the World

• European Commission President Juncker said that Greece will receive € 35 billion provided that the requirements agreed at the EU summit are fulfilled. The Greek Parliament supported the measures to resolve the debt crisis in the country, despite the disagreement of some members of the ruling party with the agreement. In the capital, the demonstrations against austerity measures took place, where  thousands of people participated,  they escalated into the clashes with police.
• Assistant Secretary Nuland is insisting on the adoption by the Ukrainian Parliament of the amendments to the Constitution and laws, agreed with the IMF. In her oppinion, the reservation in the Constitution of the special status of the Donbass corresponds to the Minsk Agreements.
• The State Statistics Committee reported on the fall of trade with Russia during the five months for more than 60%.
• Finance Minister Siluyanov said that Russia expects the repayment of the Ukrainian debt from the IMF loan.
• Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Security Council informed on the harmonization of the draft statute of the international tribunal to investigate the accident with flight MH-17 aircraft  in the sky over the Donbass.
• Russia is preparing an alternative report on the investigation of the accident and hinders the creation of such international tribunal. The sources in the Prosecutor's Office of the Netherlands suggest that the pro-Russian militants of the Donbass, who used the air defense systems, supplied by Russia, are called the culprit of the catastrophe.
• Ukraine's Foreign Ministry believes that the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on nonfulfillment of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights is an attempt to avoid the responsibility for the human rights violations in the Crimea and the Donbass.

The Trends

• The draft amendments to the Constitution, proposed by President Poroshenko, contain  in the main part of the document a recorded special status of the Donbass. Under the guise of decentralization a direct presidential rule through prefects is introduced, and their orders will be obligatory to the local authorities. The President will have the authority to dissolve the local elected bodies. Some MPs strongly opposed these changes and complain of pressure on them from the President Administration.
• The representative of the "People's Front" Parliamentary group claimed that Sunday televised addresses of Prime Minister Yatsenyuk are broadcasted by the central TV channels in prime time of their own free will, and not on a commercial basis.