Year in numbers

One Russian combat aircraft was destroyed by the army of a NATO member state; three former MPs from the Party of Regions committed suicide; 177 countries voted to elect Ukraine as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council; 900,300 Ukrainians chose to move to other countries.

Zero – that’s how many deputies of the Opposition Bloc voted to recognize Russia an aggressor state. The statement was supported by 271 MPs of the Verkhovna Rada MP the eighth convocation. However, 71.8% of the Ukrainians believe that Russia is the aggressor state. 60% citizens from eight EU member states believe that the conflict in Ukraine was inspired by Russia.

One Russian Su-24 combat aircraft was shot down by the Turkish Air Force on the border with Syria. This was the first ever incident in history when the army of a NATO member state attacked and destroyed the Russian jet.

One new currency - the Chinese yuan - was included in the basket of key international reserve currencies, which already includes the U.S. dollar, euro, yen and pound sterling.

Two citizens of Ukraine – filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and activist Oleksandr Kolchenko - were sentenced by a Russian court to 20 and 10 years of imprisonment, respectively. Another Ukrainian prisoner, Nadia Savchenko, which is tried in Russia, faces 25 years in prison. At the end of 2015 the Russian court extended her arrest until April 16, 2016. In general, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, 11 Ukrainian citizens remain in custody in the Russian Federation as political prisoners.

Two Russian soldiers from the 3rd special purpose brigade of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces (military unit No. 21208, stationed in Togliatti), Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, were captured in Luhansk region, and are now tried in the Ukrainian court. At the end of 2015 the court extended their arrest until February 25, 2016. The troops from the Russian special forces can be prosecuted under Art. 258 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ("terrorism or participation in a terrorist organization").

A string of corruption scandals led to two top football officials, FIFA President Joseph Blatter and head of UEFA Michel Platini, being banned from football activities for an eight-year term.

Three ex-MPs from the pro-Yanukovych Party of Regions, Stanislav Melnyk, Oleksandr Peklushenko and Mykhailo Chechetov, committed suicide. Another MP from the said party, Oleh Kalashnikov, was shot dead just outside his apartment.

Three roads, leading to Kalanchak, Chaplynka and Chongar, were blocked by activists in September 2015, who started a so-called blockade of the Russian-occupied Crimea.

REUTERS

Four fatal shots took the life of the Russian opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov.

Five countries - Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine – mull the establishment of an independent international tribunal to persecute those responsible for the downing of the MH17 Malaysia Airlines passenger aircraft over Donbas on July 17, 2014, killing 298 people. Russia strongly opposes the idea.

It took six days for the Ukrainians to collect the necessary 25,000 signatures under the first e-petition to the president of Ukraine after the launch of this type of communication. The petition asked the Ukrainian head of state to give the citizens the right to personal protection [right to carry and use firearms for personal protection].

Ukraine has fulfilled ten of the 16 recommendations in the fight against corruption, according to a report by GRECO, a group of States against Corruption of the Council of Europe.

12 countries - the U.S., Japan, New Zealand, Vietnam, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, Chile and Mexico - have signed a Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty. It is the largest trade agreement signed over the past 20 years, providing for a free trade area in the Asia-Pacific region (which is 40% of world trade).

13% of Ukrainians were engaged in volunteer activities during 2015.

17 former Ukrainian officials from the entourage of the ousted ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych will remain under sanctions of the European Union at least until March 2016.

34 out of 422 people's deputies of the eighth convocation of the Verkhovna Rada did not miss a single meeting of their parliamentary committees in 2015.

REUTERS

Brent crude traded at $36.2 per barrel. The price is the lowest since July, 2004.

48 so-called "humanitarian convoys" illegally entered the Ukrainian territory beyond Kyiv government’s control from Russia in the past year.

57 countries, including China, India, Russia and Germany, signed the act on the establishment of the Asian Bank of infrastructure investment. The U.S. and Japan have refused to participate in this project.

The approval rating of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin among the Russian citizens reached 89.9%. 74% said they would re-elect Putin as head of state.

128 journalists were killed in 2015 in 31 countries, according to a report by Press Emblem Campaign. The Middle East remains the most dangerous region for the reporters.

A 153-page report was published by the Polish deputy from the Law and Justice party on the crimes of Russian troops and pro-Russian militants in the east of Ukraine. A notice will be submitted to the International Court of Justice in The Hague based on the evidence included in the document.

177 countries supported Ukraine’s election as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the period of 2016-2017.

263 MPs voted in favor of the State Budget for 2016 with a deficit at 3.7% of GDP and revenues at UAH 595 billion.

The Ukrainian troops have held defense at the Donetsk airport for 242 days, but fierce hostilities with the attacking enemy led to the collapse of the terminals, and the Ukrainian fighters were forced to withdraw from their positions.

270 persons are suspects in the crimes against the Maidan protesters. Of these, 43 are senior officials.

309 MPs voted for the extension of the moratorium on the sale of farmlands for another year, until January 1, 2017.

382 individuals and 105 legal persons came under the Ukrainian sanctions against Russia.

409.3 kilometers of the border with Russia in the temporarily occupied areas of Donbas are beyond Ukraine’s control.

REUTERS

At least 600 Ukrainians remain in captivity of the pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine.

7,500 Russian military servicemen are reported to have been deployed in the Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

9,098 people have been killed in the east of Ukraine since the beginning of hostilities and 20,732 people were wounded, according to the report of the UN Monitoring Mission on human rights to Ukraine.

11,117 people died in 2015 from Ebola. The number of infected people has exceeded 25,000.

92,446 applications for land plots were filed by the members of the Anti-Terrorist Operation and the families of fallen soldiers.

900,300 Ukrainians chose to move to other countries in 2015, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Over 1.341 million internally displaced persons (about 1.1 million families from Donbas and Crimea) were registered in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.

UAH 131.33 million has been blocked in 2015 by the State Service for Financial Monitoring of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine in the framework of measures to prevent and counter the financing of terrorism and separatism.

UAH 136.9 million came to the Ukrainian budget from the privatization, which is just 0.8% of the planned amount.

A package of financial assistance to Ukraine in the coming years should amount to $40 billion. This includes $17.5 billion within the IMF lending program.

$97 billion and 10 years may be needed to for the overhaul Ukraine’s infrastructure, as estimated by UNIAN.

Ukraine will have to pay UAH 135.2 billion in 2016 on its external and internal debts. At the same time, the volume of external debt payments will amount to only UAH 13.8 billion.

Margarita Andreyeva

UNIAN in Google News