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to high demand.
The company was in the news last week when Honcharuk said the government had done a deal to put Germany’s Deutsche Bahn in charge of running the company. Deutsche Bahn then came out with a statement saying it was not going to run the company, merely act as an advisor.
The company could also be privatised. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a bill, cancelling a law that lists over 1,500 assets state assets banned from privatisation in October lifted a ban on privatising some big state assets, including Ukrzaliznytsia.
In preparation for the investment programme Ukrzaliznytsia issued a second Eurobond in September and r aised $94.9mn via a new Eurobond placement that matures in 2024 in September.
2.3 Politics - misc
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted on January 29 to restore the full authority of the Russian delegation, dismissing most of the amendments and appeals led by the Ukrainian delegation to restrict its authority. The measure drew 96 votes in favor, mostly from the MPs of Western European countries, and 44 against, mostly from the MPs of Eastern European countries, the eurointegration.com.ua news site reported. The legislation stressed that Russia has made progress in its relations with PACE by renewing its financing and releasing Ukrainian sailors in October. At the same time, it accepted amendments that also stressed Crimea remains illegally annexed by Russia, and the requirements imposed on Russia related to its occupation remain relevant. Russian MP Piotr Tolstoy was elected to be among the assembly’s 20 vice presidents.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk submitted on January 17 a resignation letter to the President’s Office. “I came to the position to fulfill the president’s program. For me, he is a model of candor and decency. However, in order to remove any doubts of our respect and trust in the president, I wrote a resignation statement and handed it to the president with the right to submit it to parliament. He is a person that Ukrainians have expressed unprecedented trust in. And he has the full right to estimate the effectiveness of each member of his team that is changing the country,” Honcharuk wrote in a Facebook post.
Zelenskiy refuses to accept PM Honchnaruk's resignation. At his January 17 meeting with prime minister Oleksiy Honchnaruk, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he refused to approve Honcharuk’s resignation request, commenting that “it’s not the right time to destabilize the country economically and politically,” the president’s office reported the same day. “I have decided to give you and your government a chance if you resolve some things that are very important today and are of concern to our society,” Zelenskiy told Honcharuk.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy released a video on January 29 promoting Ukraine’s newly created Anti-Raid Office, which is intended to resolve
7 UKRAINE Country Report February 2020 www.intellinews.com
