Page 11 - UKRRptDec21

Ukrainians' trust in the court and ensure further cleansing of the system, Zelenskiy stressed.
Despite Its shortcomings, the EU, NATO, and the US worked together to approve the SBU law. The international advisory group, which includes representatives from these three international groups called on the Verkhovna Rada to approve the draft law on the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and the second reading agreed "satellite" law. As a result, the current draft law is adopted and fully implemented. It will become the foundation for a comprehensive reform of the SBU following European and Euro-Atlantic principles and leading practices.
Ukraine is doubling the number of border guards on its frontier with Belarus to prevent attempts by migrants to enter the country illegally, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said yesterday. As many as 4,000 migrants – largely from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria -- are trapped along the Belarus borders with Poland and Lithuania, seeking to enter the EU. “Mobile groups...will move along the border to detect illegal border crossings,” Monastyrsky told a televised briefing after a meeting of Ukraine's security and defense council chaired by President Zelenskiy. Ukraine has a 1,084 km border with Belarus.
The new Czech government will be ready to support Ukraine's membership in the EU officially. The Czech Ambassador to Ukraine, Radek Matula, is convinced that the new Czech government can sign a memorandum on Ukraine's European aspirations. “We are trying to deepen our cooperation, support Ukraine's European choice and support its efforts to reform," Matula said.
Yulia Svyrydenko was approved by the Rada on November 4 as the new Economy Minister/First Deputy Prime Minister. In the Zelenskiy administration, Svyrydenko served first as deputy Economy Minister, then deputy chief of presidential staff. Addressing the Rada, she outlined her priorities: IT, irrigation, more home mortgages, insulating 5,000 apartment buildings a year, tax breaks for pig and cattle operations and reviving shipbuilding to produce 20 ships a year by 2025.
Pavel Ryabikin, a former director of Boryspil Airport, was approved on November 4 as Strategic Industries Minister. He replaces Oleh Uruskiy who was accused of sidelining Western reforms put in place at Ukroboronprom.
Another vacant position, that of Environment Minister, is not on the agenda for November 4. On November 3, along with removing the predecessors from those posts, the legislature also dismissed Roman Abramovsky as Ecology Minister. His replacement is likely to be the current Deputy Digital Transformation Minister Ruslan Strilets as Acting Ecology Minister, pravda.com.ua reported.
Romania agrees to support Ukraine in its bid for EU membership. The two countries are negotiating the signing of a document recognizing Ukraine's European perspective. This topic was raised during a visit to Bucharest by Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Igor Zhovkva, at a meeting with State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denuz Sebastian Neculescu. As noted, Zhovkva expressed hope that Romania will be one of the next EU states to recognize Ukraine's European perspective.
11 UKRAINE Country Report December 2021 www.intellinews.com