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head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board Vitaly Shabunin was removed from the National Council for Anti-Corruption Policy, by presidential decree and replaced with scandal ridden Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. Zelenskiy also appointed his chief of staff Andriy Yermak and the equally controversial new Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to the council. The changes are part of a wider move by Zelenskiy to take more direct control of the law enforcement agencies and curb their autonomy.
Ukraine’s parliament approved on June 4 the first reading of a bill to establish the legal rules and norms for racketeering and criminal conspiracies​, as well as the punishment for such activity. The bill drew 236 votes (compared to 226 needed), including 205 votes from People’s Servant MPs (aligned with Zelensky), 11 votes from the Trust group of MPs (aligned with Akhmetov, Verevskyi), seven votes from the For the Future group of MPs (aligned with Kolomoisky), and six votes from independent MPs. It was opposed by the pro-Western factions, including the European Solidarity (led by Poroshenko), which offered no votes, the neoliberal Voice party (led by Vakarchuk), which offered no votes.
Ukrainian President Zelensky submitted to parliament on June 9 a bill to organize a national referendum​. The issues to be put for a popular vote include amendments to 38 constitutional statutes, those of national significance, changes to Ukraine’s territory and laws that have expired, according to the legislation’s text. The referendum can’t apply to issues of taxation, fiscal policy or amnesty. The legislation creates the ability to introduce electronic procedures in organizing and holding the referendum, including electronic voting.
For the first time, exiles from the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk (collectively known as Donbas) were included in a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group​ to resolve the armed conflict in Donbas, the President’s Office website announced. The Ukrainian delegation at the June 9 meeting, which occurred by videoconference, included journalist and blogger Denys Kazanskiy, ​ostrov.org​ chief editor Serhiy Harmash, lawyer Vadym Horan and medical doctor Kostiantyn Libster. These representatives were included to implement the political requirements of the Minsk Accords, the president’s office said.
Mice are to blame for 150,000 tons of grain missing from Ukraine’s State Reserve​, jokes Mykhailo Apostol, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Mice, who "have names, job titles and must be brought to account in line with the law,” he clarifies in a BBC story. Entrepreneur Roman Grabezhov calculates it would take "almost a billion mice" to eat that much grain. The first phase of a national audit – a check of warehouses in five of Ukraine’s 24 oblasts – found 18,000 tons missing from one, 20,000 tons missing from another, and 112,000 tons missing from a third. BBC calculates that is $30mn worth of missing grain.
Ukraine’s parliament approved on June 4 the cabinet’s nomination of Olha Stefanyshyna as deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, and Oleksandr Tkachenko as culture and information policy minister. ​To clear the post for Stefanyshyna, parliament voted at the same session to dismiss its current holder, career diplomat Vadym Prystaiko, who could be nominated as Ukraine’s next ambassador to Great
20​ UKRAINE Country Report​ July 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com