Week in numbers

Luhansk journalist Maria Varfolomeyeva spent 14 months in captivity of the pro-Russian militants, Russian state prosecution demands 23-year imprisonment for Nadia Savchenko, who has declared a dry hunger strike, 129 Ukrainian citizens remain hostage of the pro-Russian militants in areas of Donbas beyond government control.

Odesa regional prosecutor’s office has charged five individuals involved in smuggling 11 kilograms of cocaine into Ukraine, as noted by the prosecution’s press service. According to preliminary calculations, seized bulk is worth nearly $3 million in the “black” market.

It will take 10-15 years and several billion hryvnias to complete the process of demining in Donbas, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense.

12 sites across Donbas can be cleared of mines and explosive remnants of war as a result of the agreements reached by the tripartite contact group in Minsk. The signed deal envisages detailed aspects of demining process, including fencing and marking the areas affected by mines in the vicinity of the crossing checkpoints.

13 illegal encashment centers, which had laundered UAH 10.7 billion, have been revealed and closed up since early 2016, as reported by the State Fiscal Service. According to the officials, the state losses from the illicit activities of these centered are estimated at UAH 1.3 billion.

Luhansk journalist Maria Varfolomeyeva spent 14 months in captivity of the pro-Russian militants in Donbas. The Ukrainian authorities sealed her exchange for the two militant accomplices: the Ukrainian female resident of the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and another Russian citizen.

20 Ukrainian companies got into the ranking of Europe’s top 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in 2016, according to the U.S.-based Inc. business edition. No Ukrainian companies appeared in a similar rating last year.

Prosecutors demand a 23-year imprisonment for Savchenko / facebook.com/RomanTsymbaliuk

Russian state prosecutors demand a 23-year prison term in a penal colony for the Ukrainian female pilot and MP Nadia Savchenko. The court deprived her of the last word in a courtroom last week. The detainee believes that the Russian court has failed to prove her guilt. Nadia declared ”dry” hunger strike and stressed she will only stop it if returned to Ukraine.

Ukraine was placed 38th in the ranking of the world's democracies, out of 129 developing countries and those in transition, according to the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI), published by Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation, foreign media reported.

40% of internally displaced persons may have been obtaining their social payments illegally, according to the Ministry of Social Policy, citing data from the Ukrainian Security Service.

57 kopiykas per kW / h is the minimum rate for electricity for the households after the March 1 25% tariff increase, as reported by the Ukrainian energy regulator. The next rate increase is scheduled for September 1. In addition, the minimum tariff for gas for the households and thermal power companies will rise by 53% from April 1.

69 charges of sexual abuse were filed against the UN peacekeepers in 2015, according to the organization’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In 2014, there were 52 such charges.

74% of Russians are ready to vote at the next election for their president incumbent Vladimir Putin, an opinion poll by VTsIOM showed. This is the maximum level of support for Putin in the past four years.

76 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were conferred the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and the Order of Courage, 28 of them – posthumously, that’s according to the Presidential Administration.

After the release of Varfolomeyeva, another 129 Ukrainians remain hostage of pro-Russian militants / twitter.com/p_pieniazek

129 hostages remain in captivity of the pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine, according to the President’s envoy for the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine’s representative to the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral contact group to resolve the situation in  Donbass, Iryna Gerashchenko.

135 people were killed in a week after the truce was announced in Syria in the areas covered by the ceasefire, foreign media reported.

Ukrainian police and border guards seized 300 kg of raw amber, worth about UAH 200 million in Zakarpattia region, the western Ukrainian Mukacheve border guards’ office reported.

Flu has killed 346 people in Ukraine, according to the confirmed data of the Health Ministry. As of late February, 222,157 cases of influenza and SARS were recorded across the country. 63.7% of these cases regards children under the age of 17.

430 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been killed since the Minsk ceasefire deal was signed in February 2015, according to foreign media citing U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Carpenter, in charge of issues related to Ukraine, Russia, and Eurasia.

The State Property Fund of Ukraine says it plans in 2016 to sell 450 state-owned companies, of which 20 arelarge enterprises.

In 613 schools across Ukrainethere are less than 25 students enrolled, according to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. At the same time the cost of education per child in such schools is well above the average, nearing UAH 50,000 per year.

1,700 people trained at the ranges in Russia’s Rostov region, have arrived in the territory of Ukraine since early 2016, Ukraine’s military intel reports.

9,167 people have been killed and another 21,044 wounded since the beginning of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine, as noted by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission.

14,250 claims against Ukraine are pending before the European Court of Human Rights, according to the Higher Council of Justice of Ukraine. According to the authorities, about 9,000 of them relate to non-compliance with the ECHR judgments.

The minimum monthly wage at the State Bureau of Investigation will be at UAH 22,000, according to the Ukrainian media quoting the representatives of the Justice Ministry as saying.

126,731 soldiers and employees of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have received the status of combatants, according to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

In 2016, Ukraine returned EUR 2.5 million, earlier received in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, according to the Ministry of Environment. The sum is less than 1% of funds provided – EUR 300 million.

The equivalent of $2.526 billion was transferred into Ukraine in 2015, with the use of transfer systems created by both residents and non-residents, according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine. The amount is 34.9% less than that in 2014.

Margarita Andreyeva

UNIAN in Google News