Here’s what everyone is talking about in Ukraine:
- President Zelensky’s party has announced top prime minister candidates. In an Aug. 6 interview with the Novoye Vremya magazine, incoming lawmaker David Arakhamia said that the short list of candidates includes four people. Read more here.
- Zelensky also spoke with Putin over the phone again after four Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the Donbas. “I urged (him) to use his leverage on (the militants) to make them stop killing our people,” Zelensky said.
- Russian-backed Luhansk leaders sparred with a Ukrainian official. On Aug. 6, two officials of Russian-controlled Luhansk unexpectedly walked across the bridge into Ukrainian government-controlled Stanytsia Luhanska. Yuriy Zolkin, head of the local government, stopped them and asked what they were doing there in the sixth year of Russia’s war against Ukraine, with a death count of 13,000 and rising.
- Zelensky appointed tainted, controversial officials to oversee judicial reform.Apart from a few reform-minded experts, a new commission includes numerous controversial individuals who face accusations of corruption and other wrongdoing.
- Zelensky party lawmaker wants new law governing journalism during the war. Ukraine is hardly a heaven for journalists. This year, it lost one position in the World Press Freedom Index and was ranked 102 out of 179 countries, placing it between Lebanon and Mozambique. Now, a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s political party has expressed support for a worrying new law governing the press.
- Hong Kong protesters say they draw strong inspiration from Ukraine revolution. Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have been reignited with a vengeance. Some activists and lawmakers there say they are inspired and instructed by the successful revolution in Ukraine. They see similarities in the two struggles and feel connected.
