10/18/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Prime Minister Yatsenyuk said that the elections will be held in the Donbass only after Russia fulfills the Minsk Agreement

Prime Minister Yatsenyuk

18.10.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• Prime Minister Yatsenyuk said that the elections will be held in the Donbass only after Russia fulfills the Minsk Agreement
• The area of the burning peat near Kiev grows.
• The number of victims of the accident with the boat in the Odessa region increased.

Key Events in Ukraine

• President Poroshenko said it is a victory that Ukraine obtained a status of non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. He considers it possible to return to the proposal on the deployment of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Donbass next year if the Minsk Agreement is not realized.
  Poroshenko plans to meet with the heads of Parliamentary factions and conduct a meeting of the National Council of Reform to implement the amendments to the legislation necessary for introduction of a visa-free regime with the EU . The President called on the Parliament to adopt a law to strengthen the responsibility for the bribery of voters, and on the citizens - to participate in the local elections to create a pro-Ukrainian coalition in each local council.
• Prime Minister Yatsenyuk said that the local elections in the Donbass should be held only after withdrawal of the Russian troops, under Ukrainian law and with participation of all parties. Temporarily displaced persons, who left  the occupied territories, should take part in the elections.
• City Election Commission in Cherkasy refused to register the Party of Free Democrats, after which the Central Election Commission formed a new City Election Commission.

Kyiv

• The area of ​​burning peat in the surroundings  of Kiev increased to more than 100 hectares. The amount of pollutants in some areas of the city exeeds the permissible concentration of harmful substances by several times.

Ukraine at War

• As a result of gunfire in the Donetsk region, two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded.

Ukraine and the World

• Negotiations between the US and Israel about provision of military aid starting from 2017, interrupted by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in protest to the conclusion of a "nuclear agreement" with Iran, resumed. Current annual aid amounts to $ 3 billion.
• Chancellor Merkel said that Germany is ready to promote Turkey's accession to the European Union, but the details of this process are still to be discussed.