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refusal to implement a ruling of the Stockholm arbitration court as a precondition for starting the new gas negotiations.
2.4 Ukraine should reconsider NATO membership path, Zelenskiy official says
Ukraine won’t be allowed to join NATO and should reconsider its relations with the international defence organization, said on September 23 Iryna Wereschtschuk, the president’s representative to Ukraine’s parliament.
“We want to join, but they’re not taking us,” she told the Russian-oriented 112 television network. “We are knocking on a closed door and are losing our reputation. We can’t go where we’re not awaited. We need to move forward, become stronger, more coordinated. We have a program of cooperation, that’s all. But somehow Georgia has one section of work to do, and we have another. And not even the political section.”
On the other hand, Ukraine is “quite successfully” fulfilling the security component to meet NATO standards that have been included in national security.
“We speak and often draw criticism, but we should be telling people the truth,” said Wereschtschuk, a People’s Servant MP who heads the security and defence subcommittee of the parliamentary national security committee.
“NATO is not awaiting us. Georgia will sooner join. And I was very surprised because in 2008, Georgia and Ukraine had an equal opportunity to gain a Membership Action Plan. We are the victims of aggression, yet today including Georgia in NATO is a serious question. Ukraine is not even being considered.”
2.5 IMF team leaves Kyiv with no deal in place
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is going to continue talks with the Ukrainian government over a new three-year support programme "in the coming weeks," the multinational lender said in a statement on September 27.
The statement followed IMF mission's two-week mission to Ukraine. "The authorities have requested a new IMF-supported programme to help them achieve these objectives, by providing an anchor for their economic policies and helping to cover financing needs in the coming years," the statement reads. The mission started discussions on a new three-year arrangement that could be supported under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF)."
The administration of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be disappointed that the team did not reach an agreement during its sojourn in Kyiv as it has been rushing through reform legislation since it began work on August 29.
However, red flags have been raised over Zelenskiy’s commitment to an reform in the last few weeks. While the administration is committed to pushing through key laws like creating a land market, the main issue is the president’s willingness to curb the activities of Ihor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine biggest oligarchs and a personal friend of the presidents.
Kolomoisky has been lobbying to have his bank Privatbank returned to him, or have the state pay some $2bn in compensation for nationalising the bank in
9 UKRAINE Country Report October 2019 www.intellinews.com
