10/23/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Ukrainian-German economic forum took place in Berlin

Ukrainian-German economic forum took place in Berlin

10.23.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• Ukrainian-German economic forum took place in Berlin.
• Oligarch Firtash lawyers said that he is preparing to return to Ukraine.
• Privatbank ‘s money transferring car went under fire near Kiev.
• Scandal at the elections in Mariupol continues.

Key Events in Ukraine

• President Poroshenko signed a law allowing military personnel to enter semi-annual contracts rather than a three-year, as it was before.
• President meets with heads of diplomatic missions of the "Big Seven" who work in Ukraine. They discussed the electoral process in Ukraine, the implementation of the Minsk agreements and the progress of reforms in Ukraine.
• Mariupol territorial election commission has not decided on the ballots. CEC banned their reprint and appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to investigate the activities of the local commissions. Ballots had been destroyed In Poltava and new ones were printed. New ballots arrived in Transcarpathia.
  Center "Social Monitoring" will hold an exit poll during elections of Kyiv mayor and city council on the 25 October in Kiev by request of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine.
• The Constitutional Court postponed the hearing on the law on lustration indefinitely pending petition for disqualification of judges who are subject to the law.
• Minister of Economic Development Abromavicius said that 2016 will be the year of large-scale privatization, which will begin with the sale of Odessa Portside Plant.
• External independent testing will be held from May 5 to July 10, 2016.
• Ukraine and EBRD signed an agreement on lending of $300 million, which should be sufficient for the purchase of 1 billion m3 of gas by Naftogaz.
• More than 3.8 million households have applied for subsidies for utilities.
• Prime Minister Yatsenyuk said that 111 billion UAH (about USD $5 billion) accumulated on Treasury accounts at the Ukrainian-German Forum in Berlin.
• Banks operating in Ukraine (excluding insolvent) reported 6.1 billion UAH losses in September. Since the beginning of the year a total loss of commercial banks amounted to more than UAH 52 billion (about $2.5 billion).
• The course of hryvnia against the dollar and the ruble continued to fall: 22,57 UAH / $ (+0,29 UAH), 25,02 UAH / € (-0,19 UAH), 3,65 UAH / 10 RUB (+0, 10 UAH).

Warfare

• Day in the conflict zone in the Donbas was calm according to the headquarters of the antiterrorist operation.
• Long queues of cars gather at the checkpoint at Artemivsk daily, the situation is heating up, people spend the night in the field.
• About 408 kilometers of the border are not under control according to the State Border Service,.
• OSCE Mission confirmed the presence of Ukrainian military equipment in storage areas, at the same time the presence of militants military equipment recorded only at a few places. According to Deputy Head of Mission Hug, the risk of escalation of the situation in the Donbass remains high.
• US passed the radio and television transmitters to Ukraine for broadcasting to the occupied territory of Donbass.
• Ukraine resumed electricity supplies to the Crimea in full after repairing of the transmission line support.
• DNR militants banned the activities of the international humanitarian organization "Doctors without Borders" in the occupied territory.

Ukraine and the World

• The US State Department said it did not consider participation of Iran in the settlement talks in Syria as timely, however, does not exclude its accession to the negotiations in the future.
  Russian aircrafts conducted airstrikes on four hospitals in Syria. There are casualties among civilians.
  According to French President Hollande, the main Syrian problem is its President Assad.
  US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have rejected Russia's proposal for joining the Russian-Jordanian agreement on coordination in the skies over Syria.
• German Chancellor Merkel said that the main purpose of the Minsk peace process - to regain control over the border in Ukraine. Ukraine remains an attractive business partner. German companies are ready to invest in Ukraine, provided reforms are conducted. According to her, the sanctions against Russia will be valid until complete fulfillment of the Minsk Agreement. The law on elections in the Donbass should be adopted after consultation within the contact group in Minsk. Prime Minister Yatsenyuk insists that agreements must be hold by Russia first of all.
• The Venice Commission endorsed the President's version of the judicial reform and opposed the complete dismissal of judges and the recruitment of new since it is contrary to the European principles. According to the president of the commission, its members do not see any risk of federalization of the country.
• The head of the European Council Tusk believes that today there is no more urgent task for the EU than the solution to the problem of the uncontrolled influx of refugees from the Middle East, in relation to which he proposes to strengthen the border.
• Russia appealed to Ukraine to abandon the ban on air flights, referring to long-standing sister, historical and cultural ties between the two nations. Minister of Infrastructure Pivovarsky said that the air service between the two countries will cease on October 25 in connection with the systematic violation of the ban on flights to the Crimea by Russian airlines, despite the negotiations.
• US Navy Admiral Richardson believes that the time has come to reconsider the naval strategy of NATO due to increased aggressive activity of the Russian Navy, the problems of migrants and development of information technology.