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our military facilities, because we immediately saw that they were being threatened. That is where it all began." Putin added that "Crimea gained independence [from Ukraine] through the free will of the Crimeans expressed in an open referendum [on the status of the peninsula], not as a result of an invasion by Russian forces."
Oksana Markarova appointed acting Finance Minister , the Government Portal reports. She has been Deputy Finance Minister since March 2015 and Government commissioner on investments. Markarova has a solid academic record both in Ukraine and the USA, of work in NGOS, government and the investment sector. She is a member of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy Advisory Board, the Ukrainian Catholic University circle of friends, and international Young Presidents Organization.
Ukraine's parliament. the Verkhovna Rada, has sacked the well regarded Oleksandr Danylyuk from the post of the nation's Finance Minister following his bitter conflict with the Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. The motion was supported by 254 lawmakers, more than the minimum of 226 votes needed to pass the motion in a vote on June 7. The move followed Groysman's official request to the parliament, urging the legislative to dismiss Danylyuk. The premier was upset by a letter sent recently by Danylyuk to the G7 ambassadors in Kyiv, in which the latter disclosed details of his conflict with the PM.
2.5 Polls & Sociology
The number of Ukrainians who support Ukraine's accession to the European Union and NATO exceeds the number of opponents of such integration aspirations, according to a study conducted by Rating Sociological Group. According to the results of the study, presented at Interfax-Ukraine agency, 51% of respondents favored the country's accession to the EU, while 29% of respondents opposed it. Ukraine's joining NATO is supported by 44% of respondents, while 36% of those polled are against the accession.
If presidential elections in Ukraine were held in the middle of June 2018, Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko would receive the most votes , followed by Civil Position Party leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko and Opposition Bloc leader Yuriy Boiko, according to the results of a poll conducted by the Rating Sociological Group.
Some 16% of respondents said they would vote for Tymoshenko, 11 .7% for Hrytsenko and 10.5% for Boiko, according to poll results, according to which showman Volodymyr Zelensky would receive 9.3%, with Radical Party leader Oleh Liashko, musician Sviatoslav Vakarchuk and acting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko receiving 8.6%.
Some 52% of those polled said they would not vote for Poroshenko under any circumstances , with 30% saying the same of ex-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Liashko's anti-rating was 23.8%, followed by Boiko with 23% and Tymoshenko with 20.8%.
Some 66% of those polled said they thought the presidential elections would not be free and fair , with only 12% believing the opposite. Some 22% had difficulty answering the question. Almost 64% favored punishing candidates who will give "material assistance" to people in exchange for votes, while 23% are not against receiving "material assistance."
13 UKRAINE Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com