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Ukrainian President Zelensky expressed his hope the U.S. will be more actively involved in resolving the armed conflict in Donbas ​and deoccupation of Crimea in his Jan. 31 meeting in Kyiv with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Recall, Zelensky had proposed several times that the U.S. be involved in the Normandy Format talks. Zelensky also asked Pompeo to appoint an official exclusively responsible for Ukraine, the eurointegration.com.ua news site said. Recall, former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker resigned from his post in September, following the election defeat of former President Poroshenko.
Ukraine health minister joins evacuees from China after attacks
Responding to road blockages and bricks hurled at buses carrying Ukrainian and other evacuees from China's city of Wuhan, Ukrainian health minister Zoryana Skaletska announced on Facebook that she would be joining the evacuees in their quarantine at a sanatorium in Novi Sanzhary town approximately 300km from Kyiv.
Security agents searched the television studio of Kolomoisky associate.
Agents with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted on February 5 a search of the television studio of Oleksandr Dubinsky, a political commentator and MP with The People’s Servant party. The search was part of an investigation of those responsible for the January 15 leak of secret recordings of a December meeting between Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk and leading authorities, according to an SBU source cited by the pravda.com.ua news site. SBU agents specifically looked for audio files saved on personal computers, identifying three employees who worked with Dubinsky, including his aide Yevhen Kuksin, the news site said on February 5.
Zelenskiy may replace Prystaiko as foreign minister, report says ​The Zelenskiy administration is considering dismissing several ministers, the pravda.com.ua news site reported on February 6. Among them are Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko, who offers a strange situation, said the news site’s anonymous source in the President’s Office. Prystaiko “is a good diplomat, but hasn’t demonstrated himself as a minister,” the source said, adding that he has ruined his relations with almost everyone in the president’s inner circle. Also failing to fulfill his role is defence Minister Andriy Zahorodniuk, the news site said. There is no basis for talks on his possible dismissal, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on February 6 in response to the report.
Economy Minister Tymofiy Mylovanov introduces an anticrisis package worth $816mn to parliament’s special committee​. “Our main proposal is to consider the possibility of broader financing... for programs and areas to develop transport infrastructure, financial support programs, sectoral production programs, the development of the military industrial complex,” Mylovanov wrote on Facebook. The economy minister said that Ukraine needs $50mn in investment. He also named the three primary challenges for Ukrainian manufacturing: old means of production, reorienting the export markets, and the European Union’s introduction of a carbon border tax, which would tax imports that do not meet the EU’s ecological standards.
The People’s Servant parliamentary faction, having formed the majority and the cabinet, has led the Rada in approving nearly 30 critically important bills for EU integration​ since its work began in September, said on Feb. 6 Dmytro Kuleba, the deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration. “These were laws that for years were not approving owing to schemes, backroom agreements. This was what had been too complicated and impossible. For me, that’s much more important than reflexes regarding what our Euro-integration tactics should be,” he said in an interview with the hromadske.ua news site. With his “reflexes” reference, Kuleba was
8​ UKRAINE Country Report​ March 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com