10/12/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - General Prosecutor's Office and the Interior Ministry raided the apartments of Svoboda Party activists

General Prosecutor's Office and the Interior Ministry raided the apartments of Svoboda Party activists

10.12.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• General Prosecutor's Office and the Interior Ministry raided the apartments of Svoboda Party activists.
• Head of UKROP party Korban said the DPR militants have not given up their offensive plans.
• Drunk Russian diplomat got in an accident near Kiev.

Key Events in Ukraine

• Ministry of Health is to purchase USD2 billion worth of medical supplies through UNICEF.
• General Prosecutor's Office and the Interior Ministry raided the homes of activists and former deputies of Svoboda Party in connection with the events on Maidan. General Prosecutor's Office reported that the activists whose apartments have been searched are not suspects. The party leadership made a statement about the political persecutions by the regime. While the real perpetrators of the crime walk free, the authorities began to pursue the participants in the Maidan protests.
• Deputy Attorney General Kasko said that the investigation of the channeling of assets out of Ukraine by the officials of the regime of the former President Yanukovych may take three to five years. This year,  less than 1% of the siphoned off funds were returned from the EU due to lack of the legal procedure.
• Naftogaz transferred to Gazprom a prepayment for the first half of October. Gas supplies from Russia are carried out under a supplementary agreement to the existing contract.
• Cabinet returned to the ownership of Naftogaz the network of regional gas distribution companies, most of which are controlled by oligarch Firtash.
• State Aviation Service announced the complete suspension of any air traffic with Russia starting October 25 until the ban on the flights of Ukrainian airlines is lifted.
• Head of the NBU Hontareva said that the main objectives of the regulator are preserving price stability and stability of the banking system, and assisting the Government in stimulating economic growth. She predicted that banks would resume business lending in the summer of 2016. According to her, the National Bank does not plan to maintain any specific rate of the national currency.
• The official hryvnia rate fell by 1.5%: 21.82 ₴/$ (+0.32 UAH), 24.81 ₴/€ (+0.39 UAH), 3.56 ₴/10 ₽ (+0.06 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• Headquarters of the Antiterrorist Operation said that the process of withdrawing mortars and artillery of less than 100 mm caliber in the Luhansk region will be completed on October 17, followed by the withdrawal of tanks in the Donetsk region. Despite the provocative shelling by the militants of the Ukrainian positions in Shirokino, there were no casualties among Ukrainian soldiers.
• President Poroshenko said at the meeting with US senators that the militants have not granted the OSCE full access to the occupied territories.
• LPR leader Plotnytsky announced February 21, 2016 as the date of the local elections in the occupied territories. Ukrainian officials believe this to be a violation of the Minsk agreements.
• Energy Minister Demchyshyn denied the information on the beginning of the energy blockade of Crimea, saying that the government meets all its obligations to supply electricity to the peninsula.
• President Poroshenko at the meeting with the Armed Forces unit commanders said that he did not trust Putin and his puppets, and that the war could resume any moment.
• Head of UKROP party Korban said the DPR militants have not given up their offensive plans: terrorist leader Zakharchenko at a closed meeting announced that Russia would continue to assist the "republic," and that they should actively infiltrate their people to the Ukraine government and law enforcement agencies .
• OSCE monitoring mission has enough funds to increase the number of observers in Ukraine to 650, and later to 1,000.

Ukraine and the World

• Ambassador of the Netherlands in the Russian Federation said that the five countries involved in the international group to investigate the downing of flight MH-17 will abandon attempts to establish an international tribunal on the basis of UN Security Council resolution, and but will instead make efforts to transfer the investigation to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The report of the investigative committee that will be published within a few days states that the airraft was hit by a Russian-manufactured missile, but the specific culprits have to be named by the international court.
• A massive manifestation in Dresden (Germany) was organized by Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA) movement. The protestants demanded the resignation of Chancellor Merkel and the deportation of refugees.
• Lukashenko won the presidential election in Belarus for the fifth time. International observers say that he used the old methods, but no violence.
  President Poroshenko congratulated Lukashenko on his victory.
  The US State Department expressed disappointment with the elections because of their non-compliance with the international obligations, almost complete lack of access for observers, the absence of opposition representatives in election commissions and problems with vote counting.
  EU officials said that sanctions against Lukashenko and over a hundred Belarusian officials could be suspended for four months, "if nothing unexpected happens."
• The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is looking into the possibility of expanding its jurisdiction to investigate the events in Maidan and in Donbass.

Trends

• Four out of top ten Ukrainian banks have Russian capital, including state capital. According to some experts, Russian banks are strictly following NBU procedures, including additional capitalization, in order to keep afloat on the Ukrainian banking market. Their withdrawal from the market would result in greater losses for Russia than the increase of the authorized capital. Ukraine has not charged these banks with funding the terrorist activities of the Donbas "republics", they are operating under Ukrainian law, so there are no formal reasons to ban their operations in Ukraine.