Articles :

The presidential race in the United States keeps echoing in world politics. Poroshenko's visit to South-East Asia can see some interesting developments. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reports it has put the question of the arrival of the new Russian ambassador to Kyiv off the agenda of bilateral relations.

Ukraine has increased its own gas production and the rate of gas injection into storage facilities; the National Bank abolished the regulation obliging citizens to present passports when buying foreign currency; and the government announced the expansion of the scope and geography of road works – these are the main economic news of the past week.

The Ukrainian banks, weakened by the crisis, are still reluctant to lend to the business due to the huge amount of bad debts. Most companies are neither willing to borrow at market rates. Will the real sector receive access to funding sources it in the coming months?

Defend one’s homeland is not solely the men’s job. Despite the lack of proper military education for women in Ukraine and facts of discrimination on the part of the stronger sex, thousands of women have taken up arms to fight for their land in eastern Ukraine. UNIAN has learned how their status was changing in the course of the two years of war.

Deputy head of Presidential Administration of Ukraine, Secretary of the National Reform Council Dmytro Shymkiv has told in an interview with UNIAN about the main directions of development of the country’s IT industry, elaborating on the ways to increase the share of innovative services in the national IT market and revealing how many IT professionals have left Ukraine in recent years, why most startups created by Ukrainians are registered abroad and what should be done to change this situation.

The situation in the Ukrainian Orthodoxy has further heated an already elevated temperature in the Ukrainian society. Oleksandr Yefremov’s detention came as a surprise not only to the ex-member of the Party of Regions. With the assistance from Nadia Savchenko, separatist leaders received an opportunity to simulate peacekeeping efforts on the background of the dragging Minsk talks.

Two months of arrest is the preventive measure chosen by the Ukrainian court against ex-member of the Party of Regions Oleksandr Yefremov; 72 new U.S.-made unmanned aerial vehicles have been handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine; UAH 200,000 is the reward for the information which will help the investigation into the murder of a journalist Pavlo Sheremet.

The National Bank has once again lowered its key rate and continued to soften forex restrictions; the IMF's leaders have announced they are leaving for a summer vacation without setting a date for the meeting on Ukraine – these are the key economic news of the past week.

The U.S. presidential campaign has determined the main contenders. The president of Russia abolished the "Crimean Federal District", showing his puppets their real place. The Kremlin has decided to change Mikhail Zurabov, who has been an ambassador to Ukraine for seven years, for someone less annoying to Ukraine. Angela Merkel calls for taking joint anti-terrorism measures at EU level.

The decision of the Russian leadership to disband the "Crimean Federal District" and include the occupied Crimea in the Southern Federal District is an expected operation of the Kremlin, which Moscow hopes to use to bypass part of the international sanctions and to improve control over the distribution of plundered public funds.

Despite the differences in society over the situation in the east of Ukraine, the citizens are united in one thing: Donbas is part of Ukraine. UNIAN tried to determine what the residents of the temporarily occupied territories felt and what they are silent about, two years after the war began.

Ukraine is in many terms one of the world's largest agricultural producer. But the realization of the country’s ambitious goal - to become the world’s food basket – still remains at the initial stage.

Ahead of preliminary hearings in the case of the murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, UNIAN sat down with Zosia Rodkevich, the director of the documentary titled "My Friend Boris Nemtsov", which premiered at the 7th International Odesa Film Festival.

The death of Pavlo Sheremet could trigger a social and political crisis. Nadia Savchenko is dancing to someone else’s tune. The anniversary of Volodymyr Groysman’s first 100 days in office was a rather routine affair. Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy appears overly optimistic about Parliament’s performance.

Four main versions of the murder of a prominent journalist Pavlo Sheremet are being verified by law enforcers; 14 countries applied to the International Olympic Committee to ban the entire Russian team from participation in Rio Olympics; there are 30,000 militants across the world, who belong to terrorist organizations, one way or another.

On the eve of the first anniversary of his Government, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman visited Brussels to hold talks with the leaders of the European Union. Donald Trump became the official candidate from the GOP in the U.S. presidential election. Labeling by the Polish Sejm of the Volyn tragedy as “genocide” is unlikely to improve Polish-Ukrainian relations.

The Government led by Volodymyr Groysman has marked the first 100 days of its work; the attempt to sell the state-owned Odesa Port-Side Chemical Plant has failed; while the International Monetary Fund has postponed a decision on the allocation of a third tranche of the loan for Ukraine – these are the main economic news of the past week. 

UNIAN has analyzed the achievements and main economic priorities of Ukraine’s new Cabinet of Ministers, headed by Volodymyr Groysman, over its first 100 days in power.

The attempt to sell the state-owned Odesa Port-Side Chemical Plant (OPP) has failed one again due to the mistakes of the organizers. Potential buyers have chosen to give the auction of the plant, which has a starting price of UAH 13.2 billion, a miss. The State Property Fund (SPF) is now planning another attempt to sell the company in the fall, promising to reduce the plant’s price by a third.

Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine Alexander Hug has told in an exclusive interview with UNIAN about the Ukrainian staff of the mission, the situation on the Ukrainian-Russian border in the areas beyond Ukraine’s control, and explained why the security zone along the contact line cannot be called one “without danger.”