12/13/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - A rally of policemen who have not qualified for the new police was held in Kyiv

A rally of policemen who have not qualified for the new police was held in Kyiv

12.13.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• A rally of policemen who have not qualified for the new police was held in Kyiv.
• Russian warship opened fire at a Turkish trawler.

Key Events n Ukraine

• Prime Minister Yatsenyuk in his weekly TV address said that Ukraine has consumed a quarter less gas than last year. The country has managed to get rid of the Russian gas dictate. It buys gas in Europe at much cheaper prices than Russian offers.
• In Kyiv, a rally of policemen who failed to qualify to join the new police was held in front of the Interior Ministry.
• In Kryvyi Rih, protests in support of the mayoral candidate Miloboh continued after the Opposition Bloc candidate Vilkul was scandalously declared Mayor. Miloboh at the Viche urged citizens to go to Kyiv to demand reelection from the Verkhovna Rada.

Ukraine at War

• Militants continue to fire at the Ukrainian army positions from small arms and mortars, and use armored vehicles and tanks. Increasing tensions in the Mariupol axis -- Shyrokyne, Hranytne, Novotroitsk -- have been reported. The situation is also tense near Donetsk and Artemivsk. In Luhansk region, no provocations have been reported. According to official reports, there has been no casualties among soldiers.
• Crimean Tatars leader Cemilev believes that the electricity should be supplied to Crimea on the condition that the agreements are signed not between enterprises, but between ministries, the territory is called the "Autonomous Republic of Crimea," all political prisoners are released, all missing activists are found, and democratic freedoms are guaranteed.
• The authorities of the terrorist Donbass "republics" are planning to call up for military service in spring 2016. Starting January 1, 2016, mandatory re-registration of vehicle will be held in DPR, and new license plates will be issued.
• DPR Militants stopped near Donetsk and returned to Ukraine a UN humanitarian aid convoy.

Ukraine and the World

• Patrol ship of the Russian fleet opened fire at a Turkish fishing boat in the Aegean Sea. Russian authorities strongly protested to the military attache in Turkey.
• The first train arrived from China to Georgia using the "New Silk Road"
• German Chancellor Merkel said that Syrian President Assad was not a party to the alliance against the terrorist Islamic State and had no future as a head of state.
• Moldovan President Timofti said that the Russian troops need to be withdrawn completely from Transnistria.

The Trends

• According to the Chairman of the National Agency on Civil Service Vashchenko, after the Parliament adopts the law, the reform of the civil service should be financed from the state and local budgets, as well as the EU aid in the amount of €1.8 bn. It should involve the optimization of the management structure and the transfer of authority to the regions as part of the decentralization efforts. However, the draft state budget presented to the Parliament by the Ministry of Finance provides for covering state budget deficit from local budgets, which puts into question the civil service reform funding.
• Social activists reported that the rally of the former MIA employees who did not qualify for the police was organized by a trade union. Some rally participants had taken part in the persecution of Maidan activists, including beating them up when dressed in civilian clothes under the guise of "titushky." According to experts, the former MIA employees would not rally on their own, so the protest appears to be well organized in preparation for some later events meant to destabilize the situation in the country.