You're reading: Daily Digest: Top news of Friday
  • Gazprom seeks termination of Ukraine gas contracts. Russian gas giant has lodged a claim to an international arbitration seeking to cancel its supply and transit contracts with Ukraine.
  • Groysman to run for parliament in 2019. The prime minister and former protege of President Petro Poroshenko hints he will run for parliament as the leader of a separate party, marking a possible breakaway from Poroshenko.
  • IMF sees slowdown in Ukraine’s reforms. Director of the IMF’s European Department Poul Thomsen said at a briefing that IMF sees “some slowdown of reforms” but complimented Ukraine’s monetary policy.
  • Ukraine’s GDP grew 2.3 percent in January-March 2018, says National Bank.
  • Foreign debt is Ukraine’s economy biggest problem. Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said Ukraine owes $46 billion just in loans from the period of 2007 to 2014. The total debt is more than $60 billion. The Finance Ministry, however, says the entire state debt of Ukraine is some $73 billion.
  • Alleged recording implicates Poroshenko in graft. Fugitive lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko published what he claimed to be a recording implicating President Petro Poroshenko and ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky in corrupt deals. Now the National Anti-Corruption Bureau says it will look into the tapes if Onyshchenko provides the originals, and the lawmaker vows to cooperate.
  • Crimean sailors escape Ukraine. Two out of nine sailors from the fishing boat arrested in the Ukrainian waters managed to sneak through Ukrainian passport control, board a flight to Belarus, and return to their homes in occupied Crimea.
  • Ukrzaliznytsia to repair, upgrade its aging rolling stock. U.S. transport manufacturer General Electric plans to extend its partnership with Ukraine’s railway monopoly Ukrzaliznytsia beyond the supply of 200 locomotives, as envisioned in a 10-year, $1 billion deal signed in February.

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