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be heard in the first priority,” said SBU Head Ivan Bakanov in a published statement.
The French government has selected Ernst & Young Global Limited, or EY, to conduct a forensic audit of UkrOboronProm​ and to implement a corporate government system for the state arms making conglomerate. France made the choice because France is largely paying the bill.
Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved a bill on April 16 that enables the shortening of the review process of excessive amendments to draft bills. ​The initiative was supported by 242 MPs, compared to 226 votes needed. It surfaced in response to ​more than 16,000 amendments dumped on the banking resolution bill​ required by the IMF (the so-called anti-Kolomoisky law that prevents the return of failed banks to their former owners). In its normal mode, the Rada would have to review all the amendments in the session hall for more than five months. Instead, the adopted measure enables reviewing the amendments under a simplified procedure.
Ukraine's parliament adopted on Apr. 13 the bill amending ​the 2020 state budget​, increasing the deficit to 7.5% from 2.1% of GDP on Apr. 14, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported. The bill drew 249 votes (compared to 226 needed), all of which belong to the pro-presidential People’s Servant majority faction.
The Ukrainian president has effectively lost his “supermajority” in the parliament ​during a chaotic day on voting on the land and bank laws on March 30 that saw three consecutive parliamentary sessions and the dismissal of the Health and Finance ministers. The banking law and the land reform law were voted by respectively 198 and 206 “Servant of the People” deputies (out of 248 deputies from the party), short of the 226 votes required to pass a law. Both laws were adopted only thanks to the support of Petro Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party as well as the Golos party, two groups which remain, most of the time, in strong opposition to the president.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko holds a firm lead in the polls for the local elections scheduled for October 25, ​the Rating Sociological Group reported on April 13. About 38.7% of decided voters said they will cast their ballot for Klitschko, compared to 9.1% for comedian Serhiy Prytula and 8.8% for Oleksandr Tkachenko, the People’s Servant MP who served as former general director of the 1+1 Media group of companies. The poll was conducted between April 4-7 involving 2,000 respondents.
Head of the president’s office Andriy Yermak briefly addressed during an online press briefing the growing scandal surrounding his brother, ​who has been accused of attempting to sell government positions (NV). “I think you understand who is doing everything to ensure that Ukraine does not vote on important laws and finds itself on the brink of default,” Yermak said, adding that “I believe it was a planned action, an operation.” On March 29, Geo Leros, a deputy from Zelensky’s Servant of the People party and a recently-dismissed advisor to the president, released a series of recordings dating from between August and October 2019 in which a person who looks like Denys Yermak, Andriy Yermak’s brother, can be heard meeting people and discussing their potential appointments to various government structures and state companies, appointments that Denys Yermak doesn’t have any official authority to secure. It’s the first major corruption scandal to hit someone in Zelensky’s circle and has, unsurprisingly, prompted strong reactions.Zelensky hasn’t commented on
11​ UKRAINE Country Report​ May 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com