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one of Kyiv's key negotiators with the country's main donor, the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, his possible resignation is unlikely have any dramatic effect on Kyiv's cooperation with the multinational lender due to the fact that the IMF's $17.5bn support programme has been de-facto stalled since 2017.
Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk has declared the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers to transfer to it control over the State Fiscal Service, which has been subordinated to the Ministry of Finance, to be a violation of regulations and illegal. "The issue of transfer of control has been raised several times. I do not know what is behind this, but, precisely, the concentration of so many powers, especially in the pre-election period, in one hand is wrong," the minister said. He also emphasized that he does not intend to resign. He has appealed to the ambassadors of the G7 and accused the president and prime minister of interfering in the work of the ministry for political purposes, UNIAN reports.
Hague court orders Russia to compensate Ukrainian companies for losses in Crimea . The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague has issued a unanimous judgment that Russia is responsible for violating the rights of Ukrainian investors and should compensate their companies for damages arising from its annexation of Crimea. The trial was initiated by 18 Ukrainian companies and one individual against Russia on 19 June 2015. Russia is obliged to pay compensation (worth about $159mn) for losses caused.
Russian war reporter and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko was murdered in Kyiv on May 29, shot in the back in back in his apartment by an unidentified assailant. Babchenko was a well-known reporter, who severed as a solider in two of Russia’s wars before becoming a war reporter. He fled Russia for Ukraine after being subjected to a sustained campaign of harassment after posting what the authorities said were “unpatriotic” post concerning Russia’s indiscriminate bombing of Aleppo in Syria.
Ukrainian President Poroshenko has ordered Ukraine’s defence industry to launch production of the Vilkha high-precision anti-aircraft missile launcher series this year, he announced on his Facebook page on Apr. 25 after visiting a weapons test site. Vilkhas are assembled entirely of Ukrainian parts, he noted, and they are 10 times more precise than the anti-aircraft systems that Ukraine inherited from the Soviet military. Poroshenko said he also ordered Ukraine’s defence industry to boost cruise missile production.
Addressing corruption in the land sector. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has drawn attention to the scale of corruption still continuing in the land sector .It is currently investigating 25 criminal cases concerning land plots, about a third of which have been forwarded to courts, the NABU says on its website. The scale of the alleged crime in these cases involving bribes to local officials in exchange for land exceeds UAH450mn.
The Council of the European Union (EU) is imposing sanctions against five individuals responsible for organising the “illegal presidential election” in Ukraine's Crimea and the city of Sevastopol annexed by Moscow in 2014 that were part of Russia’s presidential elections in March.
23 UKRAINE Country Report June 2018 www.intellinews.com