Page 16 - UKRRptFeb21

Minister of Culture and Information Policy, asked YouTube to cut them off. Regional TV stations will be vetted for pro-Russian content and possible closures, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the defence Council, warned yesterday at a briefing aired by Ukraine 24 TV. “The state will be tough because we're in an extremely difficult situation today,” he said. “We're at war. Everyone needs to realize and understand this.”
In the latest of three court setbacks for Ihor Kolomoisky, a 6-year, $6bn claim by Kolomoisky ​and his partners against Ukraine ended yesterday after the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce declared it had no jurisdiction in the case. “SUPER MEGA WIN!!!!!!!!!!!! in Stockholm arbitration,” Ukraine’s Justice Minister Denys Maliuska wrote on Facebook. “After almost six years of trial, the arbitration was denied them today -- denied completely.”
Newly appointed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in their first telephone conversation that Washington is ready to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine​, UAWire reported on February 2. "Anthony Blinken assured Dmytro Kuleba of the readiness of the new US administration to develop strong economic and military support for Ukraine, including the provision of lethal weapons," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry​ ​reported​ on its website.
President Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People expelled Oleksandr Dubinksy from the parliamentary faction on February 1, ​unian.info reported the same day. MP Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk wrote on Telegram that it was the “shortest-ever” meeting of the faction. Dubinsky was ejected by a vote of 198-29, with 19 abstentions. Dubinsky had been asked previously by President Zelenskiy to leave the faction, which he refused to do. The ex-member was added to a US sanctions list in January for allegedly interfering in the US 2020 presidential elections. The expulsion is at best another half-measure that will instil fear in precisely nobody.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on January 23 its agents arrested a resident of the Kherson region who allegedly worked for the Federal Security Service in Russia ​in organizing protests against rising utility prices, or the so-called “tariff maidans.” Eduard Kovalenko, who was recruited in May 2020 through the Russian-sponsored Luhansk People’s Republic, received a payment in exchange for organizing a series of protests “whose goal was discrediting the state bodies and destabilizing the situation in the country.” SBU agents documented how Kovalenko fulfilled FSB orders in collecting information on trends in crisis events in Ukraine,”, which was supposed to form a stable protest potential in a region bordering temporarily occupied Crimea and spread throughout the country,” said the SBU website.
In March, the mass vaccination of 2.5mn Ukrainians is to start. ​Later in the spring, people will be able to buy vaccinations – a window for foreigners to get vaccinated here. Minister Stepanov tells Ukraina 24 TV that people who are vaccinated will get ‘passports’ – certificates to facilitate foreign travel. Currently, about 7,000 new Covid cases are reported daily in Ukraine, about half the level of six weeks ago.
In November, the pandemic’s peak in Ukraine, the number of people who died in Ukraine was up 35% y/y, to 63,440​. In October, the deaths were up 17.5% reports the Civil Service. During the first 11 months of 2020, two
16​ UKRAINE Country Report​ February 2021 ​ ​www.intellinews.com