You're reading: Thursday’s headlines: Shale gas dispute hits courts; Opposition parties protest in front of Kyiv City Council building

Editor’s note: In this feature, the Kyiv Post brings together the most relevant events from morning headlines.

A legal challenge to energy giant Shell’s shale
gas exploration in Kharkiv Oblast has hit a local court,
writes Kommersant. The complaint
filed by local Batkivshchyna deputy Ivan Varchenko, which claims the landmark
production sharing agreement between Shell and Ukrainian authorities was signed
in violation of numerous local laws, has been registered, and will now be reviewed
by the Kharkiv District Administrative Court. While experts claim this will be a formality, the business daily warned
that it could lead to serious problems for shale gas extraction in the future
,
which the government is banking on to reduce political sensitive and costly
dependence on Russian gas.

Kyiv journalists, civic activists and representatives of opposition parties are protesting in front of the Kyiv city council building, writes Ukrainska Pravda. They are chanting “Bandu Het” (Get rid of band), “Go out on the street and save your city”. According to Viktor Chumak, UDAR (Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms) party member, he and his colleagues are going to check the legitimacy of council’s voting. However, journalists and opposition deputies are so far not allowed to enter the city hall where the council’s session is supposed to start.

Batkivshchyna party member Arkadiy Kornatsky claims his agrofirm was attacked again, writes Ukrainska Pravda. “Today there was another attempt to set on fire the fields of Kornatsky’s agrofirm not far from Bila Kamianka village. Unknown man intentionally set on fire the field where the winter wheat was maturing,” Kornatsky wrote on his facebook page, according to Ukrainska Pravda. Earlier Kyiv Post
wrote
about the case, which involved the workers of Kornatsky’s agrofirm, who were
wounded during the clash on June 18 when about 80 people attempted to enter the
territory of the firm.

The Cabinet of Ministers is expected to
increase the competencies of the Odesa Port to include metals and grain
operations,
writes
Forbes.ua. According to documents obtained by Forbes.ua, the Infrastructure
Ministry’s strategy until 2038, to be reviewed on July 11, does not include the
formation of logistics clusters around four ports – the Odesa, Mykolaiv,
Ilchevsk and Southern ports – unlike a previous policy paper prepared during
the Spring.

State road building company Ukravtodor will need
Hr 264 (over $32 billion) for its planned construction and re-construct 2,400
kilometers of roads in 2013-2018,
writes
Forbes.ua. The state firm also proposed to carry out repair works on 31,600
kilometers of roads, out of a total 169,500 in the country. Some 14 percent of
the budget is meant to repay credit obligations.

The Russia-led Customs Union is preparing to
introduce sanctions against Ukraine,
writes
Tyzhden. This move would increase duties on Ukrainian chocolates, sweets,
certain glass products and coal, the outlet informs, and is a response to the recently
increased utilization duties on imported vehicles in Ukraine.

The road inspectorate DAI is blocking
opposition members’ vehicles from accessing the Kyiv City Council,
writes Tyzhden. According to the
publication, Batkivshcyna spokesperson Dmytro Chigryn informed about this via
Facebook, complaining that the vehicles were not allowed to access the official
buildings despite having all the necessary documentation.