The week in numbers

Two criminal groups involved in the bombings in Odesa have been neutralized  by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), Ukrainian soldiers who ran over a girl in Kostyantynivka, killing her, face up to 10 years in jail, and 35,300 troops will return home during demobilization.

2 criminal groups who blew up the offices of political forces and volunteers in Odesa have been neutralized, according to the SBU. Five people were detained under suspicion of organizing and committing terrorist acts, and also manufacturing of improvised explosive devices. Law enforcement officials say they are taking measures to detain other members of the group.

3-4 years may be needed to build up Russian military forces to attack the Baltic States, said the commander of US forces in Europe, Ben Hodges. An attack now is unlikely because Russian forces are still involved in the conflict in Ukraine.

$5.5 billion less profit was received by Russian Gazprom following restrictions on gas supplies to the European Union. In addition, the gas monopoly paid $400 million in fines.

A 10-year jail term may be the punishment for Ukrainian servicemen involved in an accident when an 8-year-old girl was hit and killed with an armored military vehicle in Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region, according to the military prosecutor's office. The two suspects, who at the time they were detained after the accident were intoxicated, are awaiting the submission of their indictments to the courts before April 1.

15 Ukrainian doctors who were abducted in Libya by armed men associated with the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have been released and returned to their places of residence, according to the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine.

UNIAN

18 gas fields in annexed Crimea have been seized and illegally exploited by Russia, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said. In addition, more than 400 Ukrainian enterprises on the peninsula have been illegally nationalized.

30 pharmacy chains are subject to checks by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine with regard to price increases during a period of excessive demand, said the acting head of the Committee Mykola Barash. Later, similar checks will be carried out in the oil and food markets.

85% is the level of Crimea’s subsidization from the Russian budget, as estimated by Russian experts. This may be compared with two troubled Russian regions – Ingushetia, where the level of subsidization is 87%, and Chechnya – with 82%. In general, over the last year, the Russian government spent RUB 125 billion on the annexed peninsula. This year, a minimum of RUB 100 billion will be allocated to Crimea.

180 Ukrainian troops are still held hostage by militants of the co-called DNR and LNR (Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic), said Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. At the same time, according to the Security Service Center for coordination of hostage release, Ukraine is ready for the next big POW exchange, with at least 100 people expected to return home.

REUTERS

$250 is the top expected price per thousand cubic meters of Russian gas for Ukraine in the second quarter of 2015, with the tendency for a further decline, said Volodymyr Demchyshyn, Ukraine’s minister of fuel and energy, after tripartite negotiations involving Ukraine, Russia and the European Gas Commission.

341 Members of Ukrainian Parliament voted for the president’s decree on the approval of the appeal to the UN Security Council and to the EU Council on the deployment of international peacekeeping and security missions to the Donbas.

1,100 troops from Latvia, Lithuania, the United States, Great Britain, Luxembourg and Canada are holding annual joint exercises of ground, air and naval forces, according to the Ministry of Defense of Latvia. The maneuvers are aimed at training battalions of infantry brigades of the ground forces to seize opportunities to support combat during various operations.

3,000 soldiers from various units of Ukraine’s ground and air forces who have not moved to the continental part of Ukraine but remain in Russian-annexed Crimea are suspected of treason and desertion, according to the military prosecutor's office.

REUTERS

14,600 militants were killed in the Donbas during the Antiterrorist operation (ATO), according to the deputy commander of the ATO Colonel Valentyn Fedychev. The militants have also lost almost 260 tanks and 340 armored combat vehicles, almost 170 multiple launch rocket systems, 190 artillery systems, 16 airplanes and helicopters, 10 unmanned aerial vehicles, and up to 360 vehicles. Most of the military equipment, according to the ATO headquarters, came from Russia.

35,300 troops who were drafted during mobilization by presidential decree of March 17, 2014 will return home during demobilization, which will last from March 18 to May 1, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

A UAH 585,000 pension was illegally obtained by Ukraine’s ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov from 2008 to 2014, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The investigation revealed that embezzlement was committed in a conspiracy with officials from the Pension Fund.

UAH 1.2 billion is the estimated value of the arrested movables and real estate owned by the Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea, as well as by the self-proclaimed leaders of the autonomy’s illegally formed government - Sergei Aksyonov and Vladimir Konstantinov - according to the Prosecutor General's Office.

3 billion cubic meters of natural gas was imported to Ukraine from Europe since the beginning of this year, according to Ukrtransgas, a state-owned gas transmission system operator. Just in the first half of March, Ukraine imported 632 million cubic meters of natural gas from the European Union, which accounted for 81% of total imports.

REUTERS

$38.7 billion is the estimated value of Ukraine’s gold reserves by 2020, as predicted by the International Monetary Fund. According to the IMF, the state reserves will increase in 2015 by 2.5 times compared to their current value – up to $18.3 billion.

$135 billion dollars in revenue is Russia’s estimated loss in 2015, as calculated by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It is noted in the report that each dollar of reduction of the average oil price costs Russia $ 3 billion in lost revenues.

UAH 1.7 trillion is needed for major repairs to 98% Ukrainian roads, according to the estimates by William Invest Expert consulting company. The minimum amount for the repair of the road network is UAH 850 billion.

UNIAN in Google News