09/14/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - The Cabinet revoked the draft budget-2016 immediately after introducing it to the Parliament

The Cabinet revoked the draft budget-2016 immediately after introducing it to the Parliament

14.09.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• The Cabinet revoked the draft budget-2016 immediately after introducing it to the Parliament.
• Samopomich faction remains a part of the parliamentary coalition.
• Poroshenko believes that Saakashvili would be a great prime minister of Georgia.

Key Events in Ukraine

• The government has submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a draft budget for 2016, and immediately withdrew it: the tax system, basing of which the budget items have to be calculated, has not been determined; defense spending parameters have not been defined.
• Following the meeting of the heads of parliamentary factions with the President, the leader of Samopomich faction Berezyuk said that the faction will remain a part of the coalition as long as it is possible to make reforms, but reserves the right to leave if reforms are not implemented.
• А rally of IDPs demanding the enforcement of their voting rights in local elections was held in Kyiv.
• Fitch upgraded Oschadbank’s long-term foreign currency credit rating to CCC following the completion of its Eurobonds restructuring.
• The official hryvnia exchange rate slightly decreased, but the fluctuations are insignificant: 21.95 ₴/$ (-0.25 UAH), 24.82 ₴/€ (+0.37 UAH), 3.23 ₴/10 RUR (+0.04 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• The situation in the conflict zone in Donbas remained relatively stable, but the Headquarters of the Anti-Terrorist Operation reported that two Ukrainian servicemen were killed and two wounded. Militants opened fire at Ukrainian positions near Schastya and in Artemovsk neighborhoods.
• OSCE observers stated that the militants forbid them to inspect certain sectors of the territory, where heavy weapons may be located.
• President Poroshenko said at the meeting with the leaders of the factions of the parliamentary coalition that that he had decided not to announce the next wave of mobilization due to the ceasefire.
• The Ministry of Social Policy reported that the number of internally displaced persons has reached almost 1.5 million people.

Ukraine and the World

• OSCE Secretary General Zannier said the organization plans to increase the number of observers in Donbas to 1,000, subject to the observation of the Minsk Agreement by the parties to the conflict.
• EU ministers extended sanctions against 150 citizens of Russia and Ukraine responsbile for inciting the war.
• Gazprom confirmed that the construction of new pipelines of the Turkish Stream has been postponed indefinitely.

The Trends

• Experts pointed out once again that Ukraine did not impose sanctions against the aggressor country and maintains trade relations with Russia. The draft decision of the NSDC on imposing sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals awaits the President's signature. A leading expert on Eastern Europe economist Aslund during the presentation of his book in Ukraine urged the country's leadership to stop buying Russian gas that is used as an instrument of the economic warfare.