Page 18 - UKRRptSept19

Two-thirds of Ukraine’s 41mn hectares of farm land is in private hands. Rents are a fraction of neighboring Poland.
Rapid privatization of the state railroad would put tens of thousands of people out of work and “end the logistics of the whole country,” Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan warns in a Facebook posting. “Ukrzaliznytsia means 70% of the freight traffic of the entire state, hundreds of millions of passengers annually, 3-5% of GDP,” writes Omelyan who has worked with the railroad, as a minister or deputy minister, for the last five years. Instead, he advocates a shift to private freight and passenger trains, domestic production of electric locomotives, and preparation for an IPO, aimed at drawing a strategic investor by 2022. He writes: “If we don't want a social explosion, the only way forward today is deep reform.” Employing 400,000 people, Ukrzaliznytsia is the world’s sixth-largest rail passenger carrier and seventh- largest rail freight carrier.
Yuriy Hrymchak, the deputy minister of the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons, was arrested on August 14 by undercover law enforcement officials after he allegedly accepted a bribe of $480K to influence judges and culture ministry officials for favourable decisions. Hrymchak and his aide, Ihor Ovdiyenko, were arrested in a sting operation organized the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the National Anti- Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Prosecutor General’s Office for demanding a total of $1.1mn for “aiding in the decision-making by those authorized to conduct state functions.” So far, they have been charged with fraud, the SBU said on its Facebook page.
Zelenskiy tries to strengthen cooperation with Turkey against Russia.
Cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey in forcing Russia to respect international law will be able to improve the situation in the Black Sea region and Crimea to the two countries’ mutual benefit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told a press conference following his August 7 meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. Zelenskiy raised human rights violations and political persecution against Crimean Tatars with Erdogan during the meeting. They also discussed the security of maritime traffic through the Black Sea, as well as Ukraine’s efforts at restoring peace to Donbas. “Together without fail, we will find a path to force Russia to respect international law, to return peace and stability to the region, to protect the rights and freedoms of Crimea Tatars, and to free political prisoners,” Zelenskiy told the press conference.
Zelenskiy conducts talks with Putin after four soldiers killed. The morning four Ukrainian soldiers were shot and killed in the war-torn Donbas region, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy placed a telephone call to Russian President Putin to request that he use his influence to stop the aggression. “I urgently called him and said this doesn’t bring us closer to peace,” Zelenskiy told an August 7 press briefing about his call that morning. He said he told Putin,” I plead with you very much to influence that side so that they stop the murder of our people.” The four soldiers were in a trench setting up engineering equipment when they were struck and killed by a grenade, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed on August 7. Zelenskiy also discussed the current efforts to remove mines and rebuild the bridge in the town of Stanytsia Luhanska, as well as efforts to return war prisoners. Zelenskiy
18 UKRAINE Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com