You're reading: Daily Digest: Top news of weekend, Nov. 9-10

Laws and the lawmakers who pass them

The Servant of the People party of President Volodymyr Zelensky has a new head today, after Parliament Speaker Dmytro Razumkov resigned the position of party leader at a convention of lawmakers and party members. The gathered delegates unanimously voted to elect lawmaker Oleksandr Kornienko, who previously chaired the party’s election campaign headquarters, as the new party leader.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the Cabinet of Ministers to write up a draft law regulating the work of the mass media by the end of the year. It could potentially represent a government effort to control and censor the Ukrainian press.

War in Donbas

The third round of troop pullbacks on the Donbas front line launched on Nov. 9. Both the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed militants began a three-day process of withdrawing troops and armaments a kilometer back from the front line. Disengagement at front-line hotspots is a key component of a long-stalled peace process for the region. It’s also aimed at decreasing the number of military and civilian casualties on the front line. Check out some photos from the process.

A new sociological survey indicates that residents of the Russian-occupied Donbas largely believe that Russia has no role in the war it unleashed there in 2014. They also place the blame for the conflict on the Ukrainian government, the United States and activists of the EuroMaidan Revolution.

The Media

Bad news for the de-oligarchization of Ukraine’s mass media. The Media Group Ukraina holding, owned by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, will launch a new news-focused television channel called Ukraina 24.