Petro Poroshenko showed his will to convert the results of the Normandy Four meeting in Berlin into suppression of his domestic political opponents. Volodymyr Groysman’s Government turned six months, which amid a systemic crisis seems to be an already long term in office. Ukrainian legislators could not resist their usual temptation to raise their salaries disproportionate to general economic growth.

Although the Normandy Four talks in Berlin can hardly be called successful. It’s rather about Ukraine having managed to hold ground without crossing the red lines set up earlier. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president tried to use the pretext of these talks to launch an attack on political opponents. In an interview he gave to several Ukrainian TV channels, Poroshenko stressed that the Minsk agreements have no alternative and their rejection of them is unlikely to be acceptable for Ukraine. It should be recalled that Poroshenko harshly criticized certain politicians recently, who were willing to give up part of the country [that is, the occupied part of Donbas, of course) and promoting their views in certain foreign embassies. It is also clear that the desire to end the Donbas as soon as possible actually exists in Ukrainian society, while promoters of this idea speak under various party banners. Poroshenko will have to constantly maneuver under attacks of not only Ukraine’s European partners, but also the country’s opponents willing to take advantage of the ongoing crisis.

Presidential opponents are now targeting Poroshenko’s team, including National Bank Governor Valeriya Gontareva. Media efforts of Serhiy Taruta, supported by Yulia Tymoshenko, failed to channel into the effective voting at the Rada’s session hall, but Valeria Gontareva definitely felt uncomfortable. Having secured support of the ambassadors of the U.S., UK, and Canada, she said the campaign to discredit her had been initiated by the owners of troubled banks. It is unlikely that this will make media confrontation around the country’s central bank stop, as there is a certain political background to this.

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko / Photo from UNIAN

An almost simultaneous promise of Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko and Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios to forward to the court a criminal case against Viktor Yanukovych and his entourage before year-end did not seem to please the country's progressive community. At the same time, they met with resentment Lutsenko’s statement that not enough evidence had been collected against ex-member of the Party of Regions Volodymyr Medianyk, who may thus as well be released from a pre-trial detention facility. It seems that the media blow in this regard could only be beaten with some other high-profile arrest by the PGO.

Meanwhile, Volodymyr Groysman marked the first six months of his Cabinet’s work with increased optimism. The heating season in Ukraine remains a hot topic in Ukraine, the roads are not always repaired effectively but the prime minister does not seem to change his deliberately optimistic perception of what is happening in the Ukrainian economy. His belief in the success of reform is supported by the budget process, which for the first time in many years is running on schedule. However, the country’s main financial document runs the risk of stalling at the finish line.

At least, the Popular Front’s Arseniy Yatsenyuk made it clear that, without the adoption of the long-suffering law on the special confiscation, which is a matter of ill-concealed concern with the legislative corps, the budget for 2017 is likely to remain a mere declaration of intent.

The prime minister publicly condemned the move by the Ukrainian MPs for the second time this year to up their own salaries, although he can hardly affect directly the decision adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in this regard. The willingness of the deputies to improve their well-being against the background of the lack of any clear signals to millions of Ukrainians of positive economic changes, unfortunately, is an evidence of a lack of political instinct of self-preservation of the civil servants, most of whom represent the so-called parties of the Maidan.

Yevgeny Magda

UNIAN in Google News

38% of Russians have a “mostly negative” attitude toward Ukraine and another 18% - "totally negative", Ukrainian MPs voted to increase their own salaries to UAH 36,250, a subsidy from the state budget to cover the deficit of the Pension fund in 2017 amounts to UAH 156 billion.

Four participants of the seizure of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration building back in April 2014 were convicted in Kharkiv this week, according to the prosecutor's office of Kharkiv region. Two of them were sentenced to five years in prison, while the rest got the same term with a three-year probation period.

Five years down the pension threshold was approved by the Ukrainian MPs for ATO combatants. Thus, given the required time served (at least 25 years for men and at least 20 years for women), combatants will be able to retire at 55 years (males) and 50-55 years (females).

A five-year entry ban was introduced by the Ukrainian Security Service SBU against Russian singer Natalia Korolyova (originally Natalia Poryvay, born in Kyiv).

Six Russian payment systems - Zolotaya Korona, Kolibri, (earlier - Blitz), International Money Transfer System Leader, Unistream, Anelik, and Blizko – are now prohibited in Ukraine, according to a decree of the Ukrainian president. The new batch of sanctions imposed by Ukraine will affect a total of 271 Russian companies and 682 individuals.

Seven regions of Ukraine - Volyn, Ternopil, Rivne, Poltava, Chernivtsi, Cherkasy and Chernihiv – have provided 100% of households connected to central heating with the relevant services, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Hennady Zubko reported.

25 people were injured and another two were killed in a pipeline explosion at a BASF chemical plant in Ludwigshafen in Germany, according to German media.

29th position in the FIFA ranking is now occupied by the National Team Ukraine, according to the latest update published by the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA).

30 years in prison is the verdict against a California resident who attempted to assist his friend in traveling to the Middle East to join the Islamic State terrorist organization, foreign media reported.

38% of Russians have a "mostly negative" attitude toward Ukraine, while another 18% - "totally negative", according to a poll conducted by the Russian Levada Center. Only 2% of respondents said that they had a very positive attitude toward Ukraine and another 24% - "mostly positive". 17% of respondents found the question difficult to answer.

REUTERS

$60 per barrel could be the maximum price of oil by 2021, as forecast by the International Monetary Fund. The IMF report also noted that in 2017, the average price of oil could rise to $51 per barrel.

68 newborns per 100 deceased Ukrainians is recorded by the State Statistics Service in 2016. According to the agency, January-August a natural population decline amounted to 125,027 people, while 264,136 children were born in Ukraine over the same period.

118.2 kg of illegal amber was seized by law enforcers in Kyiv, according to the Prosecutor's Office of Kyiv region.

140 cases of poisoning with dangerous counterfeit alcohol have been recorded in Ukraine, with 63 of them lethal, according to the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection. The greatest number of poisonings was reported in Kharkiv region.

230 deputies supported the draft state budget 2017 in the first reading.

240 km of drainage canals has been restored in the Volyn region for the EU funds, according to the EU Delegation in Ukraine.

505 people who were victims of the Euromaidan events will receive a UAH 14,500 compensation for the year 2016, according to the decision of the Ukrainian Cabinet.

867 ATO fighters have passed rehabilitation treatment since the beginning of 2016, the Ministry of Defense reported.

900 criminal probes into the illegal actions of police officers have been launched in Ukraine over the first six months of 2016, according to the chief of the National Police, Khatia Dekanoidze.

230 MPs supported the draft budget-2017 in first reading / Photo from UNIAN

1,165 amendments were filed by MPs within the debate on the draft state budget for 2017, according to the Ministry of Finance. However, most of them were rejected because of the imbalance of costs and revenues.

2,500 heat meters will be set up by municipal authorities in Kyiv before year-end, the Kyiv City State Administration pledges.

UAH 36,250 will be the salary of Ukrainian people's deputies in 2017, according to the decision taken by the Verkhovna Rada.

156,559 influenza and respiratory infection cases were recorded in Ukraine, of which 70.7% affected children under the age of 17, according to the Ukrainian center of the control and monitoring of diseases.

EUR 104 million for the period between 2016 and 2020 can be allocated by the European Union to support the civil service reform in Ukraine, reads a joint press release by the EU and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The EU plans to launch the relevant support program before the end of this year.

$500 million of loan guarantees has been granted to Ukraine by the World Bank. This will allow attracting credit resources for the purchase of necessary volumes of natural gas for the heating season 2016-2017, as noted by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine.

$2.6 billion is the approximate amount of losses incurred by Naftogaz of Ukraine due to its assets lost in the Russian-occupied Crimea, the company estimated. Naftogaz has filed a lawsuit against Russia, demanding compensation for damages.

UAH 156 billion is a subsidy from the state budget to cover the Pension Fund deficit in 2017, according to the Fund. The total budget of the fund is UAH 285 billion.

Margarita Andreyeva

UNIAN in Google News