10/13/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - The report on the investigation into the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was published

The report on the investigation into the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was published

10.13.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• The report on the investigation into the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was published.
• Yanukovych's son filed a lawsuit against Ukraine with the ECHR for the intentional bankruptcy of his bank.
• Poroshenko proposed to establish a rehabilitation center for ATO veterans at Mezhyhirya.

Key Events in Ukraine

• The government has announced that starting October 15, it will take 24 hours to register a business using a simplified procedure of registration of business entities with the Pension Fund, State Statistics Service and State Fiscal Service.
• The final draft of the tax reform will be presented in October.
• The new membership of the Kharkiv Regional Election Commission refused again to register the Opposition Bloc for local elections to be held on October 25.
• EBRD has delayed the extension of credit to Naftogaz to buy gas in Russia until the reform of the Ukrainian gas monopoly. The Bank insists on the transfer of the control of Naftogaz to the board of directors independent of the Government.
• Tsentroenergo requested to invalidate the contract on the transfer of Rovenkiantratsit to concession to DTEK owned by oligarch Akhmetov. The company is located in the occupied territory.
• Ukraine has allowed transit flights of Russian aircraft over its territory, provided that the aircraft do not carry weapons or dual-use goods.
• The court has extended the detention of MP Mosiychuk and journalist Furmanyuk.
• Head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau Sytnyk said that the inadequate financing of the General Prosecutor's Office and the Bureau jeopardized the implementation of reforms.
• Telekritika publication stopped its cooperation with 1+1 media holding company.
• Finance Minister Yaresko met with the head of the IMF Lagarde. Talks with the IMF mission will continue in early November.
• The official hryvnia rate has remained stable: 21.93 ₴/$ ( 0.12 UAH), 24.95 ₴/€ ( 0.14 UAH), 3.52 ₴/10 ₽ (-0.04 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• Despite the statements of the Anti-Terrorist Operation press office about the "almost complete cease-fire" in the conflict area in Donbas, military clashes continue. During the shelling near Avdiyivka one soldier was killed and two others wounded. Observers stationed in different front sectors report the attempts to silence the facts of shelling and attribute injuries to careless handling of weapons.
• The military discharge of the services personnel drafted during the third wave of mobilization has been completed.
• A group of Russian agitators close to the presidential aide Surkov arrived to Donetsk to organize ideological work in the territories of the breakaway Donbas "republics."

Ukraine and the World

• In the Netherlands, a group of international experts presented a report on the investigation into the crash of flight MH-17 that killed 298 people. According to the report, the aircraft was downed by the latest surface-to-air missile of the Russian Buk air defense missile system. Experts pointed out that one of the reasons for the crash was the failure of Ukraine to close its airspace over the ​​military conflict area. Foreign Minister Klimkin stated that Ukraine had not closed the airspace over the war area, because it did not expect Russia to send its medium-range air defense systems there. The report is not final. Specific culprits will be determined by the court. Investigators have identified the group of perpetrators of the terrorist attack. The international community, the EU officials, the US and NATO have called for the organization of the trial of those guilty of the crash. Russian company Almaz-Antei, the manufacturer of Buk air defense missile systems, has expressed its disagreement with the report before its official publication.
• The European Union has lifted for four months the sanctions against Belarusian President Lukashenko and the Belarusian officials. The decision was taken after the release from prison of political prisoners and the presidential elections.
• Russian President Putin insists on the unconditional repayment of "the Yanukovych loan." He proposed to increase the amount of the IMF and the EU loans to Ukraine in order to repay its debt to Russia.
• Putin called "futile and ridiculous" the repeated demands that Russia complies with the Minsk agreements, although they have no alternative.
• The "Islamic State" terrorist group issued a video message urging its supporters to wage a holy war, or jihad, against the United States and Russia.
• According to US Secretary of State Kerry, the conflict in Syria only has a political solution. If Russia continues to support President Assad instead of joining the fight against the Islamic State, Syria will have even more extremists.
• The Russian Embassy in Syria has come under rocket fire.
• Since the beginning of the year, about 710,000 refugees came to the EU, which is 1.5 times more than in the previous year, with 360,000 arriving in August and September alone. Most of them got to Europe via Greek islands.
• President Poroshenko said that Germany was ready to immediately allocate 500 million euro for the reconstruction of the infrastructure in Donbas.
• Saudi Arabia began shipping oil to Poland at a price lower than the one offered by Russia in an effort to drive Russia out of the European energy markets.

Trends

• Experts believe that the All-Ukrainian Forum of ATO Veterans was organized under the supervision of the Presidential Administration; invitations to the Forum were distributed through state district administration; during President Poroshenko's speech, military school students were present in the audience, who later left. The Forum's delegates expressed concern that Poroshenko wants to take control over the veterans' movement to use it as a cover to promote the Government's interests, as it was already the case in Kyiv oblast.
• The government's reluctance to lose control of Naftogaz and to reform it in compliance with international standards could result in the disruption of the heating season. The gas reserves available in underground storage facilities are almost 1.5 billion cubic meters lower than the last year.
• According to The Economist, Putin needed the war in Syria to divert attention from the events in Ukraine, which he succeeded.