08/11/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Situation escalates in the Donbass

Situation escalates in the Donbass

08.11.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• Situation escalates in the Donbass.
• The SSU colonel was detained for spying for the DPR.
• Former President Yanukovych failed to appear for questioning to the General  Prosecutor’s Office.
• Finance Minister Yaresko left for the negotiations with the International Creditors Club.
  

Key Events in Ukraine

• President Poroshenko signed the amendments to the budget, according to which the army is to receive additional UAH 5.3 billion  this year.
• Ministry of Economic Development and Trade reported that the decrease of the GDP in the national currency during the first half of 2015, compared to the same period last year, amounted to 16.3%. By the end of the year the Ministry plans to reduce it to 8.9%. According to the officials, the economy got the hardest hit from the destruction of the production facilities in the conflict zone, loss of cross-sectoral and logistical links and complication of relations with the major trading partner - Russia.
• Minister of Social Policy Rozenko said that the resolving of the problems of internally displaced persons seems much more complicated than the situation after the Chernobyl disaster. He considers it impossible to solve the migrants problems without international assistance and joint efforts with the volunteer organizations.
• Vice Prime Minister Voschevsky said that for the operation of the thermal power plants during the autumn-winter period, it is needed to import 1 million tons of coal. Centerenergo plans to deliver up to 200 thousand tons of coal monthly. In order to ensure the supplies for power plants it is planned to use a train, which will deliver coal from the occupied territory by the railway line in the direction of Horlivka-Nikitovka.
• DTEK company of oligarch Akhmetov bought the rights for oil and gas field development in the Kharkiv region.
• Former President Yanukovych failed to appear for questioning at the General Prosecutor's Office, claiming that he fears for his life. Kyiv Court of Appeals refused to consider the complaint of  lawyers of Yanukovych for the actions of the General Prosecutor's Office regarding the procedures for trial in absentia. The lawyer of the former President announced about intention to file a lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights.
• General Prosecutor's Office challenged the decision of the court on recognizing the agreement between Naftogaz and Gazprom from 2009 on natural gas, which formally belonged to, but was not paid by oligarch Firtash's RosUkrEnergo company as lawful, which resulted in loss by Ukraine of more than 11 billion m3 of natural gas in underground storage facilities.
• Head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau Sytnic stated that this agency will start its work on 1 October.
• The Deposit Guarantee Fund sold Ukrgazprombank (from the category of small banks), which is currently in the process of liquidation, to the Primestar Energy financial group from the United Arab Emirates.
• Finance Minister Yaresko left for the United States to negotiate with the Creditors Club on the restructuring of the public debt of Ukraine.
• The official hryvnia exchange rate during two days returned to the positions before its growth last week: 21.37 USD / $ (0.11 USD) 23.63 USD / € (+0,33 USD) 3.38 USD / 10 € (+ 0.08 USD).

Kyiv

• The Central Election Commission approved the size of the monetary deposit for the candidates, running for mayor of Kyiv - it is UAH 104 thousand (about $5,000).
  Former member of the Party of Regions Stolar, who was involved in corruption and raider scandals, headed the "Petro Poroshenko Blok" campaign headquarters for the elections in the capital.

Ukraine at War

• The situation in the Donbass remains extremely tense. The OSCE Mission announced about a sharp escalation of the conflict in the Starognativka where the observers came under the militants’ shelling. Along all the fighting line militants are shelling the positions of the Ukrainian army and settlements, using  heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers, heavy fighting does not stop in the surroundings of Donetsk . According to the official reports, one soldier was killed, 13 were injured.
• The Ministry of Defence said that the sixth wave of partial mobilization was fulfilled only by half and did not deny the possibility of at least another three waves of mobilization, depending on the development of the situation in the conflict zone.
• The Security Services of Ukraine detained own staff member at the rank of Colonel, who worked in the Donetsk regional department and passed the secret information to the terrorists of the DPR. An employee of the mobile operator was also detained for transfering the detailed decoding of the talks of any subscriber to the terrorists.

Ukraine and the World

• The US believes that the MH-17 flight airplane was shot down by an air-to-ground missile, launched from the territory, controlled by the separatists in eastern Ukraine. The US supports all the efforts to bring the people responsible for the aircraft destroying to justice and help in Dutch investigation.
• The European Commission considers the militants attack on Starognativka and general escalation of the conflict a violating of the  Minsk agreements.
• Turkish Prime Minister Davutoglu concedes the possibility of creation in the northern Syria of a security zone, which will be defended by the Turkish army to protect the civilians, fleeing from the ISIS militants and Syrian security officials.
• The Russian government is considering to expand the list of the countries to which the food embargo is applied, and to include Ukraine to this list .
• The expanded US sanctions came into force against Russian companies and individuals - the Russians and the officials of the government of former President Yanukovych.
• Greece reached an agreement with creditors on a new package of financial assistance, which will be between € 84 billion and € 86 billion.
• Secretary of State Kerry said that the failure of the voting on the nuclear deal with Iran in the Congress will hurt Ukraine.

The Trends

• Experts and civil society activists brought into question the results of the sociological studies showing a decline in protest activity of the population and its negative attitude towards the weapon ownership. They claim that such conclusions are aimed at public opinion manipulating , as it already happened during the presidential elections in 2014.
• Combatants in the Donbass refute the official statistics of losses of the Ukrainian army, voiced by speakers of the President Administration. Losses of the volunteers are not included into this statistics .