28/01/2015 Daily Highlights by "Digests and Analytics - Ukraine" News Agency
Topics of the day
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe suspends Russia's voting rights.
Key Events In Ukraine
- President Poroshenko reinstated Vorobyov who was fired according to the rules of the "On the cleansing power" law as Deputy Chief of General Staff.
- Financial Monitoring Service has submitted documents providing evidence of money laundering by officials of ex-President Yanukovych regime in the amount of approximately $1.5 billion to law enforcement agencies and fiscal authorities .
- Ministry of Education and Science announced the suspension of cooperation with Russia.
- State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate reported that since March 2015 the citizens would be able to legalize unauthorized buildings during the "building amnesty".
- Ukraine and the United States signed the Declaration on the Granting of a financial guarantee of $2 billion under condition that Ukrainian authorities will provide the reforms.
- National Bank left the official FX rate of hryvnia (UAH) almost unchanged: 15.87 UAH / USD (-0.03 UAH), 17.94 UAH / EUR (+0,06 UAH), 2.34 UAH / 10 RUR (-0.08 UAH ).
Kyiv Life
- Kyiv City Council approved budget of the capital for 2015 with revenues of 22 bln UAH and spendings of 20 bln UAH. Revenue from property tax will be less than 1%. The budget surplus will be spent on medical drugs and meals in hospitals. Official subvention from the state budget is planned in the amount of 8.2 billion UAH.
- Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is deprived of benefits in payment of land tax.
- Law enforcing authorities stopped the construction of four large residential complexes being built without permits by developers.
- Kyiv City Council has recognized Russia as the aggressor.
Ukraine at War
- Number of shelling and attacks by militants on the Ukrainian positions and residential areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions increased. The situation in the areas of Debaltseve and "Bahmutka" highway remains extremely tense. Russia has increased the supply of military equipment and ammunition to terrorists through the state border which is not controlled by Ukraine.
- The Cabinet of Ministers decided to increase the salary of soldiers and introduced additional payments for the destruction of the enemy’s military equipment.
- Head of the SBU Nalyvaichenko said that the bodies of dead Russian soldiers and mercenaries are burned in mobile crematoria by Russian commands.
Ukraine and the World
- Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution demanding from Russia Ukrainian pilot Savchenko within 24 hours and bring her back home or transfer to a third party. RF categorically refused to comply with the resolution. PACE suspends Russian voting right in the Assembly for three months and applied other diplomatic sanctions, including a ban on participation in all activities of the organization. The Russian delegation demonstratively left the meeting and announced the termination of participation in the Assembly till the end of 2015. Russia is seriously considering the possibility of withdrawing from the Council of Europe and the termination of participation in the European Convention on Human Rights.
- At the same time, PACE has not recognized the DNR and LNR as terrorist organizations, as requested by the Ukrainian delegation.
- US Assistant Secretary of State Nuland stated that the sanctions against the Russian Federation need to be strengthened due to its aggressive policy and urged countries of NATO to take part in the creation of a rapid response forces.
- President Poroshenko declined the request of Russian President Putin to consider the current positions of the parties as a line of separation in the Donbass and insists on the release of Ukrainian citizen Savchenko detained in a Moscow prison.
- The Russian Foreign Ministry has threatened Ukraine with inevitable escalation of the conflict and accused the Ukrainian army for crimes committed by pro-Russian rebels in the Donbas.
Trends
- The West emphasized to the Ukrainian Government that the main condition of the financial assistance and new credits will be carrying out serious reforms in Ukraine.
- Coming of pro-Russian forces to the power in Greece may complicate the process of introducing of new EU sanctions against Russia.
