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Ukraine’s Rada passed a draft judicial reform bill in the second reading that will give foreign advisors a key role in choosing judges on June 29. The law will give foreign advisors the power to veto candidates to judicial appointments chosen by Ukraine’s High Qualification Commission that picks judges. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been pushing for the new law as part of its campaign to make Ukraine clamp down on corruption. Ukraine’s judicial system is famously corrupt and the oligarchs ability to use the pliable courts as a weapon has been a major hindrance to reform effort.
Ukraine’s parliament approved on June 29 an amended version of a bill #4651, offered by President Zelensky, to reinstate punishment for filing fraudulent electronic declarations or failure to file the declaration by state officials. Recall, Zelensky vetoed the previous version of the bill, approved in early June. In that version, MPs had included two last-minute changes that significantly eased the consequences for officials for not declaring, as well as allowed them to not declare the “unknown” assets of their family members. The amendments voted on June 29 add a one-year prison sentence for non-declaration and does not allow to not declare the “unknown” assets of officials’ family members.
China threatened to withhold delivery of Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines to Ukraine until the Zelenskiy government withdrew its support for more scrutiny of human rights in Xinjiang, the AP reported June 18 from Geneva. Ukraine was one of 40 countries supporting the investigation. On Thursday, Ukraine’s name had been removed. China is Ukraine’s largest single nation trading partner. On Saturday, China’s Foreign Ministry reacted angrily to the AP report, saying: “China’s provision of vaccines and anti-epidemic materials to other countries is not meant to gain benefits from other countries and there isn't any geopolitical purpose nor any political conditions attached.”
Two British Sandown-class minesweeping ships are to be transferred to the Ukrainian Naval Forces in coming months, part of a wider, £1.25bn UK-Ukraine agreement to upgrade Ukraine’s navy. In a memorandum signed Monday aboard the HMS Defender, a British destroyer docked in Odesa, Ukraine is to receive the Sandown minesweepers, a class also used by navies of Estonia and Saudi Arabia.Under the larger agreement, Britain is to help Ukraine build two naval bases, one in the Azov and one in the Black Sea. In August, a production agreement is to be signed to build the first two of eight new missile patrol boats. In a 5-year deal, Britain is committed to restoring Soviet-era shipyards in Ukraine for manufacture of the six other patrol boats. Separately, the US is providing Ukraine with five Island-class patrol boats.
After weeks of infighting, the liberal Voice party is on the verge of breaking in half. Ten out of the party’s 20 lawmakers have created their own unofficial parliamentary group called Justice (Spravedlyvist) and accused Voice’s leaders of abusing their power. They include Solomiya Bobrovska, Halyna Vasylchenko, Yulia Klymenko, Roman Lozynsky, Natalia Pipa, Olga Stefanyshyna, Oleksandra Ustinova, Volodymyr Tsabal, Andriy Sharaskin and Yaroslav Yurchyshyn. Party leader Kira Rudyk and parliamentary faction leader Yaroslav Zheleznyak have yet to react to the lawmakers’ decision. The party has been disintegrating for weeks. Some prominent members like Serhiy Prytula have quit the party, which has been embroiled in many public arguments. In an elaborate June 16 statement, the dissatisfied lawmakers
13 UKRAINE Country Report July 2021 www.intellinews.com