- The Ukrainian parliament passed a bill that allows a parish to change affiliation of its church if two-thirds of parishioners agree to it.
- Up to 34 major Ukrainian coastal cities, including Odesa, Kherson, Mariupol, Mykolaiv, Berdiansk, and Kerch, face the threat of flooding by the end of the century due to rising sea levels, according to a study by Ekodia, a Kyiv-based ecology expert center.
- Facebook said it had removed hundreds of Russia-initiated pages, accounts and groups that it judged to be involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior on its Facebook and Instagram platforms. Organized in two groups, one group was focused on Eastern European countries, and another on Ukraine.
- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a law on warning or fining those guilty of bullying during teaching and learning activities.
- Lawmaker Oleksandr Shevchenko has submitted documents to the Central Election Commission to register as a candidate in the presidential elections, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.
- German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will visit Ukraine and Russia on Jan. 18, German newspaper Die Zeit reported.
Russia’s war on Ukraine
- Russian-led forces violated the ceasefire 11 times in Donbas, injuring 10 Ukrainian soldiers, five seriously, the Joint Forces Operation headquarters said.
- The OSCE’s representatives in the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk proposed creating a joint peacekeeping mission with the UN in the Donbas, which would have military and police components and an international administration.
- Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said Russia is continuing its creeping offensive not only in the Azov Sea, but also in the Black Sea.
Business news
- CEO of state oil and gas company Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolyev says the company has already begun to recover $2.6 billion in debts from Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, which in February 2018 lost a lawsuit in the Stockholm arbitration tribunal on its gas transit contract with Naftogaz.
- Good news! The Kyiv Post is offering a 24 percent discount on a one-year online subscription in celebration of the newspaper’s 24th year. The discount brings the price down to $45 from the regular $60.
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