07/28/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - An in absentia trial of former President Yanukovych and the officials of his regime started

An in absentia trial of former President Yanukovych and the officials of his regime started

07.28.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• An in absentia trial of former President Yanukovych and the officials of his regime started.
• The General Prosecutor accepted the resignation of his Deputy Guzyr, who defended the prosecutors involved in corruption.
• The National Bank agreed the conditions of work in Ukraine of the world's largest payment systems.

Key Events in Ukraine

• In Kiev, the ceremony to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the death of Prince Vladimir, the baptizer of the Kyiv Rus, which was attended by the President Poroshenko, took place
• President Poroshenko urged the public to discuss the steps to prevent the violations during the local elections on October 25 .
• The Deputy Head of the President Administration Shymkiv said that the European Union can allocate funding to support the reform of the public service, if the Parliament adopts a new law on public service and a full and detailed plan for public sector reforming is developed.
• General Prosecutor Shokin accepted the resignation of his first Deputy Guzyr.
• The General Prosecutor's Office started in absentia legal prosecution regarding six former members of the President Yanukovych clan and issued about a hundred requests to various countries for the confiscation of the property stolen by the former officials.
• Former Head of the SSU Counterintelligence Department Kondratyuk was appointed a new Head of the Intelligence Department of the Ministry of  Defence .
• Foreign Minister Klimkin claimed that the EU gave no guarantees for introduction of the visa-free regime, and  the main criterion for such decision will be a successful fight against corruption and a reform of the law-enforcement system.
• The National Commission for Radio Communication agreed the deprivation of anonymity of the mobile subscribers.
• The National Bank simplified the conditions for entry into the Ukrainian market for the international payment systems, including PayPal and ApplePay.
• The assets of the National Bank in the national currency increased by 27% during the first six months of the year.
• The official hryvnia exchange rate against the major currencies remains stable, but the ruble rate decreases, reflecting the situation at the Moscow Stock Exchange: 22.04 UAH/USD (-0.02 UAH) 24.30 UAH /EUR (-0,10 UAH), 3.66 UAH/RUR 10 (-0.09 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• Militant attacks  intensified near Shyrokine , shellings do not stop along all the fighting line, at night militants launched a massive attack on Schastya. Official reports inform about one dead Ukrainian soldier and 11 wounded.
• Ukrainian army creates a Rapid Reaction Force reserve , which will be used if the militants start offensive after the withdrawal of the heavy weapons by Ukraine.
• According to the UN figures, the number of victims of the conflict in eastern Ukraine is 7 thousand people, more than 17 thousand people were injured. The number of internally displaced persons continues to grow and has already reached 1.4 million people. The Government of Japan allocated $ 800 thousand for assistance for the displaced persons under the UN program, including their retraining and business development.
• The SSU showed a video of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate military, detained in Schastya, which, according to the Russian media, were allegedly exchanged for the Ukrainian hostages. However, according to the Adviser to the SSU Head Tandit, the Ukrainian side is considering the option of their exchange.

Ukraine and the World

• Following the French deputies, the members of the Italian Parliament are going to visit the Crimea in October. Realizing that they would be denied an entry to Ukraine, they still "want to see the situation in the Crimea with their own eyes."
• At the emergency NATO meeting in Brussels, the NATO countries supported the Turkish military operation against the militants of the Islamic state. Turkey does not need any military aid for fighting and is conducting arrests of the Islamic extremists, including those of Kurdish origin. The investigation revealed that the attack in the town of Suruç on the border with Syria was conducted by a Kurd,  recruited by the Islamic state extremists.
• According to the representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, Russia’s veto on a Security Council resolution regarding the establishment of an international tribunal to investigate the MH-17 flight aircraft accident will not prevent its establishment.
• Secretary of State Kerry urged the US Congress to approve the agreement with Iran, which is ready to dismantle its nuclear program in response to the lightening of sanctions.
• US Ambassador to Ukraine Payette believes that Russia is increasing the number of its forces along the borders with Ukraine and on Ukrainian territory and continues to escalate the conflict in the Donbass. Together with the militants under its control it demonstrates the constant readiness to continue the offensive.
• Attorney of Ukrainian deputy Savchenko, Novikov states that the verdict regarding her case is already written, and the Russian court would give her the maximum sentence of 25 years.
• The SSU, on the proposal of the Ministry of Culture, has banned French actor Depardieu from the entry to Ukraine for 5 years for his anti-Ukrainian statements.
• Natural gas production by Russian "Gazprom" dropped during five months in 2015 by 13% due to lower exports, which resulted in decrease of investments in the production of the hydrocarbons.
• The WCO Council confirmed the compliance with the organization requirements of the additional trading fee, introduced by Ukraine .

The Trends

• By the President Poroshenko Decree, Gnatishin  was appointed an ambassador to Moldova, where he already was an ambassador in 1996-2000. However, the ambassadors for the key countries (Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and almost 20 other countries) are still not assigned. At the same time, Kyiv does not hesitate to receive the financial assistance and expertise from these countries. Deutsche Welle reported that such situation is connected with the shortage of personnel in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which qualified experienced diplomats are leaving en masse because of the low salaries and nepotism. According to the Head of Maydan of Foreign Affairs,   Yaremenko, absence of the  ambassadors in these countries is a result of incompetence of the MFA and failure of the President to fulfill his constitutional functions.
• In the opinion of the experts and representatives of the civil society, the replacement of the Deputy General Prosecutor by the successor, controlled by the sacked official, is a profanation of the reforms in the department. Deputy General Prosecutor Sakvarelidze and investigator Kasko, who headed the anti-corruption work, remained in their positions.