2019 Presidential Election
- The Central Election Commission has registered 34 candidates for president of Ukraine so far.
- Public trust in Ukraine’s presidential candidates is low and, for front-runner Yulia Tymoshenko, it may be the lowest. And she appears to be aware of the problem. Read our recap of Tymoshenko’s meeting with journalists and members of the European Business Association on Feb. 4.
National News
- Freedom House ranked Ukraine as “partly free” in its 2019 index of political and civil liberties. The country lost some points as a result of the growing number of attacks on activists and journalists and heightened hostility to minorities.
- Kyiv court suspended U.S.-born Ulana Suprun from serving as an Acting Health Minister. The lawsuit had been filed by Ihor Mosiychuk, a lawmaker from the Radical Party of Oleg Lyashko and a fervent opponent of Suprun’s medical reform. The government said it would appeal the ruling. President Poroshenko, speaker of the parliament Parubiy, western embassies have sided with Suprun.
- Another Kyiv court allowed ex-tax chief Myroslav Prodan, who’s currently under investigation for embezzlement of over $3 million, to remove a tracking electronic bracelet and keep his international passport.
- Prosecutor General’s Office opened an investigation into treason and separatism against pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. As a head of the political council of Za Zhittya party, Medvedchuk proposed granting autonomous status to the eastern Donbas, which remains under control of Russian-backed separatists, and holding peace talks without international participants.
- A new report shows that Moscow is still holding freedom of navigation in the Azov Sea and through the Kerch Strait to ransom, continuing to arbitrarily delay Ukraine-bound commercial vessels whenever it wants.
- A court mistake helped journalists to reveal that Russia’s biggest illegal online casino, Azino777, operates out of Ukraine and has managed some of its money flows through a Ukrainian branch of Sberbank.
Business
- Unfinished Kyiv mall Respublika, previously owned by oligarch Dmytro Firtash and property developer Vagif Aliyev, was sold for $28.6 million. The buyer is a company Soltex Capital, incorporated 5 months ago and owned by a Canadian man with UK residence, according to a corporate registry.
- Ukrainian energy company Kness Group launched Ukraine’s first large-scale solar panel production plant in Vinnytsia.
- Trains from Odesa and Kharkiv to Moscow will run every other day, not daily, as Ukraine state railway changed its timetable due to falling passenger numbers.
- Photo gallery: Drogobych, the oldest salt mine in Ukraine.
Culture
- Ukrainian artist made it to the final of America’s Got Talent with her goosebump-inducing animation.
- Thriller Mr. Jones about the first foreign journalist who exposed horrors of Holodomor in Ukraine, Gareth Jones, will premiere at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 10.
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