02/08/2016 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - The Parliamentary coalition is on the edge of collapse

The Parliamentary coalition is on the edge of collapse

02.08.2016 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• The Parliamentary coalition is on the edge of collapse.
• Russia conducts large-scale military exercises on the border with Ukraine.
• The charges of embezzlement of public funds against former deputy of the Party of Regions Ivanyushchenko were dropped.

Key Events in Ukraine

• Chief of Supreme Court Romaniuk strongly opposes a complete replacement of the judiciary, however, he supports the holding of re-certification.
• The General Prosecutor's Office cannot verify whether the weapon, about finding of which  the SBU Head and the General Prosecutor informed President Poroshenko, was used for shooting at the Maidan activists .
• The Prosecutor's Office checks the actions of the patrol police, which resulted in a killing of the passenger of the car, involved in persuit.
• Due to the omission of the Prosecutor's Office, the court withdrew the charges against former deputy Ivanyushchenko, who was part of the inner circle of the "family" of President Yanukovych, and was suspected of stealing the money received by Ukraine from the sale of greenhouse gas quotas under the Kyoto Protocol. The General Prosecutor 's Office stated that they appealed the decision of the court, and Ivanyushchenko is still in the international wanted list.
• The General Staff planned the seventh wave of partial mobilization for the beginning of March . In April, the soldiers, mobilized during the fourth mobilization wave, will be demobilized .
• Soldiers of one of the army units in the Mykolaiv region foot marched to the regional center, and appealed to the Prosecutor's Office with complaints about the inhuman conditions of service.
• The State Statistics Service informed about zero core inflation in January compared to December 2015.
• The NBU finally deprived of license the 24nonstop payment system, which has a wide network of payment terminals across the country.
• The National Bank leaves the market of long-term deposit borrowing and  will be placing only certificates with maturities from one month or less. The domestic government loan bonds  with maturities from three months and longer will be further placed by the Ministry of Finance.
• The official hryvnia exchange rate against dollar has not changed: 25.88 ₴/$ (-0.04 UAH), 28.73 ₴ € (-0.30 UAH), 3.36 ₴/10 ₽ (+0.01 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• As a result of  militants attack in Maryinka one soldier was wounded . Fighting took place along all the frontline in the Donetsk region - in Shirokino area, on Volnovakha direction, in the vicinity of Donetsk and Horlivka, on Svetlodarsk bridgehead.
• Head of the Luhansk military civilian administration Tucka states that the level of smuggling across the demarcation line in recent time has significantly grown .

Ukraine and the World

• Russia suddenly launched exercises to test the combat readiness of the troops of the Southern Military District and assigned divisions, including aviation, military transport aviation and airborne troops in the western strategic direction in the vicinity of the state border with Ukraine. Chief of General Staff Muzhenko considers these exercises planned.
• According to Belarus President Lukashenko, the country is ready to comply with the IMF recommendations, but would not give unrealistic promises to the Western partners.
• Russia continues the carpet bombings of the  Syrian towns with cluster bombs, as a result, killing dozens of civilians. German Chancellor Merkel is shocked by the actions of the Russian troops. Turkish President Erdogan told Putin that the Russian troops in Syria are the occupiers, and the Turkish army is ready to help the forces of the international coalition in the antiterrorist operation in Syria.
• The British Army along with the NATO forces will hold large-scale exercises for the deployment of troops in the Jordan, on the border with Syria, to practice a combat coordination in  the remote theater of operations in the event of a possible conflict with Russia.

The Trends

• The next meeting of the coalition council in the Verkhovna Rada ended without results. According to head of the Poroshenko Bloc  Lutsenko, three factions refuse to cooperate with the Prime Minister, which is indicating the absence of a sufficient number of votes for the voting in the Parliament. The Popular Front is in the form of an ultimatum insisting that Yatsenyuk remains a Prime Minister. Head of the Radical party faction Lyashko informed about their withdrawal from the negotiations on reformatting the coalition. The "Batkivshchyna" party faction is not going to withdraw from the process, but they require from the Cabinet to introduce a program of action for the next year, which would be a vote of confidence to the Yatsenyuk government . The West has repeatedly stated about their negative attitude towards the change of the Government and early elections, however, the contradictions within the Parliament may lead to incompetence and dismission.
• The corruption scandal around the business partner of President Poroshenko, Kononenko continues. Minister of Economic Development Abromavicius gave testimony to the detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. The SMS-correspondence between Abromavicius and the official, whom Kononenko wanted to assign to the Ministry, was published. Deputy Firsov left the Poroshenko Bloc faction due to reluctance of the faction leadership to fight corruption. Head of the State Property Fund Bilous said that Kononenko and former MP Martynenko personally affect the energy companies, so to avoid the corruption processes it is necessary to conduct an immediate privatization of the largest enterprises.