11/16/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Russia is ready to restructure the “Yanukovych’s debt"

RF Finance Minister Siluanov

11.16.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• Russia is ready to restructure the “Yanukovych’s debt".
• CEC announced the winners of the second round of mayoral elections in major cities.
• G20 Summit continued its work In Antalya.

Key Events in Ukraine

• The Central Election Commission declared the representative of the Opposition Bloc Vilkul  the winner of the mayoral elections in Kryvyi Rih. Samopomich party is preparing to challenge the elections results in court. Former member of the Party of Regions Mamay was elected Mayor of Poltava. MP Filatov was declared the Mayor of Dnipropetrovsk, by-elections to the Verkhovna Rada will held in his majority constituency. Martsinkiv of the Svoboda party has become the Mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk. In Berdyansk, the candidate of Nash Kray party Chepurnoy won the mayoral elections. Representative of the Batkivshchyna party Lysenko was re-elected the Mayor of Sumy. Klitschko was declared the Mayor of Kyiv.
• Hryvnia continued its gradual decline: 23.21 ₴/$ (+0.15 UAH), 24.88 ₴/€ (+0.06 UAH), 3.49 ₴ / 10 ₽ (+0.03 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• The shelling  of the Ukrainian positions by the Russian occupation forces continues. Local clashes continue near Donetsk. The use by the militants of MLRS Grad has been reported. OSCE reports the systemic violation of the ceasefire. According to intelligence reports, all heavy vehicles of the militants have been refueled and are ready for the offensive. The occupation forces conduct offensive reconnaissance in different areas of the front line. The Russian military is increasingly often involved in fighting..

Ukraine and the World

• Russian President Putin invited Ukraine to repay the debt of $3 billion taken by the government of former President Yanukovych in installments over three years. Finance Minister Yaresko said she is ready to meet with the Russian leadership to discuss the restructuring of the loan.
• French President Hollande intends to change the country's Constitution to consolidate the fight against terrorism. Belgian authorities have increased the terrorist threat level to "severe." Special task forces of France and the European countries carry out operations to identify and neutralize the terrorist network that organized the attacks in Paris. CIA Director Brennan believes that the terrorists of the Islamic State could be planning further attacks, including attacks against the United States. After the Paris attacks, US senators oppose the admission to the US of the refugees from Syria.
• President Obama believes that the ground operation of US forces in Syria would be a mistake. France has sent its aircraft carrier to the shores of Syria. French aviation delivered new airstrikes to the positions of the Islamic state terrorists. Russian President Putin accused Western countries of the refusal to provide information on concentrations of extremists, which makes Russia decide on the targets for airstrikes in Syria independently.
• At the G20 summit in Antalya, leaders of Germany, Britain, USA, France and Italy discussed the situation in Ukraine. President Obama called on Russia to withdraw its troops, release hostages and give Ukraine access to the state border. German Foreign Minister Steinmeier suggested that with its actions in Syria, Russia is trying to divert attention from the events in Ukraine.

The Trends

• Antonov SC did not bring home any new contracts from the air show in Dubai. AN-178 aicraft was not prepared for flights. Despite the optimistic statements of the officials, the Ukrainian aviation industry continues its decline. In June, MP Gvozdev of Petro Poroshenko Bloc, former car dealer from Khmelnitsky, was appointed Director General of Antonov company.
• Even though foreign observers reported a small number of violations in the recent local elections, activists and experts stated the use of administrative resources for forcing the victory of the candidates supported by the authorities and the purposeful refusal of the President to change the composition of the Central Election Commission, whose mandate expired in June 2014. The vote count that is taking weeks and the non-transparent procedure for tracking intermediate results are also evidence of possible violations. According to experts, electronic voting could change the situation, while some analysts propose to introduce non-anonymous vote with results tracking in real time.
• According to the lawyers of the Heavenly Hundred, the report on the inquiry into the events on the Maidan announced the president Poroshenko is likely to fail, because none of the cases against the paymasters and perpetrators of the reprisals is ready for transfer to the court. They stated that the ruling of the International Criminal Court in The Hague on crimes against humanity commited on Maidan could not be different, because Ukrainian law enforcers did not provide enough information for the investigation.