11/15/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - The second round of mayoral elections in Ukraine

11.15.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• The second round of mayoral elections in Ukraine.
• The G20 summit opened in Antalya, Turkey.
• Tension increases in the combat zone in Donbass.

Key Events in Ukraine

• The second round of mayoral elections took place in largest cities of Ukraine. The voter turnout was very low. Klitschko remains the Mayor of Kyiv, Sadovyi - the Mayor of Lviv. Filatov wins in Dnepropetrovsk. The CEC promises to announce the final results in the next few days.
• President Poroshenko granted Ukrainian citizenship to Georgian Grigalashvili, who should become a Head of the Department of Homeland Security of the National Police.

Ukraine at War

• The situation in Donbass becomes more complicated every day. Observers and intelligence report on the transfer by Russian occupation forces of large amounts of fuel, heavy armored vehicles and personnel to the frontline. The positions of the Ukrainian army are under attack along all the front line, the situation remains extremely tense in the surroundings of Donetsk, where the fighting almost does not stop. According to official reports, during the day one soldier was killed , eight were wounded, but the volunteers reported on large losses. The President said that the army is allowed to open fire in response, the leadership of the General Staff said about the possibility of returning of the withdrawn weapons to the demmarcation line.
• After the arrival of the next "Putin's convoy", the situation with money allowances of the militants improved. Hryvnia was virtually eliminated from currency circulation on the occupied territories .

Ukraine and the World

• The leaders of the 20 largest countries met in Antalya . Turkish President Erdogan, opening the meeting, said that the leaders of the world economy failed to achieve a significant economic growth. On the first day took place informal talks of the leaders of Russia and the United States, during which they discussed the issues of conflict settlement in Syria and Ukraine. President Obama also met with the King of Saudi Arabia, which is a partner of the US in the coalition against the Islamic state. The summit will last for two days.
• The Government of Turkey announced about the elimination of the terrorist group that was preparing a terrorist attack in Istanbul for the same time as the explosions in Paris.
• According to updated data, due to terrorist attacks in Paris 129 people were killed , about 300 were injured. Special units of the European countries are carrying out the detentions of the terrorists and their accomplices.
• The French air force bombed the Syrian city of Raqqa, which is considered the center of the terrorist Islamic state.
• German Chancellor Merkel considers it necessary to improve the conditions for legal migration and to fairly distribute the refugees in the countries of Europe. At the same time, it is important to remove the cause of migration by resolving the conflict in the Middle East and to strengthen the protection of the borders of the EU. According to more than half the citizens of Germany, Merkel can not cope with the settlement of the migration crisis.

The Trends

• The second round of mayoral elections which was held in the largest cities, showed an  abnormally low turnout - only about a third of the electorate voted in the country . According to some political analysts, this indicates a decline in the level of trust to the majority of political parties, the voters do not see any worthy candidates and, with rare exceptions, do not participate in the voting. The first results show that the opposition blok and former members of the Party of Regions failed to gain a confident victory in the southern and eastern regions, which would have allowed Russia to escalate the instability in the country, like it was in the spring of 2014. However, the appointees of oligarch Akhmetov won in Zaporozhye and Pavlograd. Defeat of the Vilkul family members, who were supported by the Head of the CEC and by the Presidential Administration, is considered by the observers a serious defeat of the President Poroshenko's team . Election of team member of oligarch Kolomoisky - Filatov as mayor of Dnipropetrovsk frees a seat in the Parliament, which can be claimed by another team member of Kolomoisky - Korban. In Kiev won incumbent Mayor Klitschko. The acting Mayor of Lviv Sadovyi became the Mayor of the city again. In Chernihiv, won former member of the Party of Regions, who joined the Presidential party. Throughout the country, the largest electoral growth was demonstrated by the  "Self-help Association" and "Ukrop" parties , the Presidential party failed to strengthen its position. Thus, its chances during the early Parliamentary elections reduced.
• According to some political analysts, Russian President Putin managed to impose on the West the agenda of the joint fight against terrorism. Western diplomats more and more often call full implementation of the Minsk Agreement by Russia a condition of lifting the sanctions agaist it, not focusing attention on the annexation of the Crimea.