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before being promoted to general director of Ukroboronprom. He was dismissed from this position on Aug. 30 by President Zelensky, who replaced with him Abromavicius. Numerous investigative news reports have alleged corruption in Ukraine’s defense sector since the start of warfare in Donbas, including illegal sales to the Russian military and price gouging.
Half (49%) of Ukrainians older than 18 oppose the proposal of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to adopt a law on the land market ​and lift the ban on the purchase and sale of farmland before December 2019, according to a survey conducted by the Razumkov Center from September 6-11. Some 31% of respondents back the land reform. During the poll, more than 2,000 respondents were interviewed over the age of 18 in all regions of Ukraine, with the exception of Russia-occupied Crimea and the rebel-held territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The sample represents the adult population of the country according to main socio-demographic indicators. The multi-stage survey sample was random with quota selection of respondents at the last stage, news agency Interfax reported on September 18. In early September, newly elected Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk ​pledged to liberalise the nation's land market in Ukraine by the middle of the next year.​ "We emphasise that we will model [the land market liberalisation] so that nobody loses land, so that people become richer as a result of this reform, and not vice versa. We will carefully approach planning, and the market will be introduced when we are ready for this, and we plan to do this in the middle of next year." However, Zelenskiy ordered the same day a bill on the farmland market to be drawn up and to be submitted to the nation's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, by October 1, annulling a moratorium on the sale of land by the same date. In December 2018, the nation's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, extended the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land until January 1, 2020. Ukraine keeps extending the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land despite the high priority the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gives to creating a land market. The IMF said in its staff report published in October 2016 that while Ukraine has a vast area of arable land, use of this land is currently limited by legislation, restricting private owners' ability to sell their land to more efficient users and constraining the use of land as loan collateral. "Amending the legislation to unlock land-related transactions would generate significant economic gains, including higher incomes and greater tax revenues. New legislation on agricultural land sales is expected to be submitted by end-September 2016," the IMF wrote. In May, Ukraine's Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman ​said​ the Ukrainian cabinet will allow sales of agriculture land only to individuals with Ukrainian citizenship and up to a maximum of 200 hectares of land per person. On August 8, Zelenskiy also said that as a result of large-scale privatisation, effective investors would receive hundreds of interesting objects. "We will conduct large-scale privatisation and sell hundreds of interesting objects to effective investors, create normal competitive rules in the energy markets and simplify the rules of doing business removing restrictions," Zelenskiy underlined.
Deputy head of the Kyiv city state administration Volodymyr Slonchak was attacked by unknown persons on September 17, ​as a result of which the official was hospitalised in serious condition. "The condition of the deputy chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration is difficult, 14 stitches have been put on his head," Slonchak's spokeswoman Halyna Shpak wrote on her Facebook page on September 17. The incident happened amid a bitter conflict between Slonchak's associate, Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, and a team of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In September, newly appointed
14​ UKRAINE Country Report​ October 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com