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Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk to greenlight Zelenskiy’s request to fire
Klitschko as head of the Kyiv city state administration.
Cabinet rules to dismiss Klitschko as Kyiv administration head. ​The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine ruled on Sept. 4 to dismiss Vitali Klitschko from his post as head of the Kyiv City Administration, citing his close ties to Vadym Stolar, among the capital city’s real estate kingpins who is widely accused of corruption. “Regardless of the fact that this is the team’s decision and the final decision will be made by the president, I don’t have any doubts that corruption has not stopped in Kyiv and groups of influence still exist in Kyiv that too strongly influence the administration’s interests,” said Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk during a Sept. 4 press briefing. “So I think that if we bolster Mr. Klitschko with a strong administration head, a manager capable of resisting all these groups of influence, that will be very well reflected upon the interests of average Kyivans.” Stolar was elected to parliament with the pro-Putin Opposition Platform For Life party. In response to the Cabinet ruling, Klitschko accused Ukrainian President Zelensky of illegal actions aimed at taking control of the mayorship. “What is happening is illegal,” Klitschko said. “This is not constitutional, not democratic. The Cabinet has taken a step towards imposing dual power. In essence, this is direct presidential rule. With such actions, they are trying to deny Kyivans the right to choose their government.”
Ukraine files latest complaints against ArcellorMittal after Kolomoisky calls for nationalization​. The State Fiscal Service announced on September 4 several complaints against ArcellorMittal Kryvyi Rih, a company that has been targeted with numerous investigations by state authorities since President Zelenskiy’s inauguration in July. A “massive tax audit” of the enterprise has called into question UAH9bn, related to rental payments on ore extraction and reduced rental payments on land, as alleged by Yevhen Bambizov, the head of the office of large taxpayers of the State Fiscal Service, as reported by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. ArcellorMittal controls the plant widely known as Kryvorizhstal, among Ukraine’s biggest steel producing factories. The fiscal complaints were filed a day after investigators with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), accompanied by environmental inspectors from other state bodies, visited the factory in Kryviy Rih, the hometown of President Zelenskiy, to reportedly review its coke production facilities. Recall, SBU officials performed several investigations of the company in July, filing criminal ñharges of ecocide. The investigations inflicted at least $1mn in damages from production stoppages, the company said. The latest wave of investigations and complaints come after Ihor Kolomoisky, among Ukraine’s biggest oligarchs and chief sponsor of Zelenskiy’s presidential campaign, called for the nationalization of the Kryvorizhstal plant in an interview published on August 27 on the censor.net.ua news site. When asked whether he supported state investigations of the plant, Kolomoisky said,” I don’t simply support them, I believe that enterprises need to be confiscated where there is bad ecology, returned to the state and for cleansings to occur,” he said. In the same interview, Kolomoisky denied any interest in taking control of any assets.
15​ UKRAINE Country Report​ October 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com