08/20/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - President Poroshenko hopes that amendments to the Constitution will be adopted quickly

President Poroshenko hopes that amendments to the Constitution will be adopted quickly

08.20.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• President Poroshenko hopes that amendments to the Constitution will be adopted quickly.
• One year after the defeat of Ukrainian troops in Ilovaisk nobody was named as responsible for the tragedy.

Key Events in Ukraine

• Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Groisman said that the parliament will meet on August 31 for an extraordinary meeting to adopt the amendments to the Constitution in the first reading and a new session will open on September 1, at which these changes must be approved by a constitutional majority of 300 votes. The head of the parliamentary faction "Bloc of Petro Poroshenko" Lutsenko said that the coalition have enough votes for effective voting. He argues that the military coup in the country is hardly possible, however, does not exclude the various provocations from people in military uniform.
  President Poroshenko hopes that the Verkhovna Rada will not delay the consideration of amendments to the Constitution, judicial reforms, removing the immunity of deputies and judges.
• Ukraine continues to increase the volume of gas pumping into underground storage facilities supplied by reverse scheme from Europe.
• Losses of Ukrainian banks in July increased by more than 2.5 billion UAH and reached 33.1 billion UAH ($1.5 billion) since the beginning of the year.
• The official hryvnia exchange rate remains relatively stable: 22.03 UAH/USD (-0.04 UAH), 24.64 UAH/EUR (+0,27 UAH), 3.29 UAH/ RUB 10 (-0.07 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• Number of active shelling attacks by militants has declined but the Ukrainian army continues to incur substantial losses. Four soldiers were killed and 14 wounded during the day. Intensive fighting continues around Donetsk and on the south, where militants used heavy artillery.
• Some of the "Right Sector" fighters decided to go to work in the special SSU special forces "Alpha". The commander of the 5th Volunteer Ukrainian Corps Battalion of "Right Seqtor" said that the soldiers who are constantly on the front line will not be left without the possibility of participation in hostilities.
• Soldiers of the Regiment "Dnepr-1" derived from the village of Pisky, adjacent to the Donetsk airport, which they held throughout the year. They will be replaced by regular army units.

Ukraine and the World

• President Poroshenko said that the consultation of experts in the "Norman format" in preparation for the leaders' meeting in Berlin on August 24 were successful. The summit will discuss the implementation of the commitments by the Ukrainian authorities to prepare for the introduction of a visa-free regime.
• Deputies of the Greek parliament after lengthy debate, accepted the terms of a new package of EU assistance, which allows the country to avoid default in exchange for austerity measures and painful reforms. Because of the split in the ruling party during the voting, Prime Minister of Greece, Tsipras announced his resignation and early parliamentary elections on September 20, 2015.
• The situation on the line separating North and South Korea sharply escalated exchanged artillery strikes.
• Representatives of the European Commission stated that the date of commencement of tripartite negotiations on gas with Russia and Ukraine is not defined, bilateral consultations at the ministerial level must be hold first.
• The euro on the Moscow Interbank Stock Exchange exceeded 75 rubles, the dollar is already cost more than 67 rubles. The sharp devaluation of the currency occurred in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan following  the ruble.
• The administration of US President Obama said that the meeting of the leaders of the US and Russia is not planned in the near future, despite the fact that President Putin will visit the United States and will attend the UN General Assembly.

The Trends

• A year after the defeat of Ukrainian troops near Ilovaisk the investigation could not name those responsible for the tragedy and accurately determine the amount of loss. According to the chairman of the temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada Senchenko, the ministry of defense and the president's administration is blocking the investigation and are not willing to take responsibility for human resources and military decisions that have led to the tragedy.